KLARA AND THE SUN: 2 ½ STARS. “turns the whimsey but not the emotion up to 11.”
SYNOPSIS: In “Klara and the Sun,” a new science fiction film from director Taika Waititi, an obsolete companion android attempts to bond with a sick girl. “Until recently, I didn’t think that humans could choose loneliness. That there were sometimes forces more powerful than the wish to avoid loneliness.”
CAST: Jenna Ortega, Amy Adams, Mia Tharia, Aran Murphy, Steve Buscemi, and Natasha Lyonne. Directed and co-written (with Dahvi Waller) by Taika Waititi.
REVIEW: Co-writer and director Taika Waititi turns the whimsey up to 11 in this adaptation of a based on 2021 novel by Kazuo Ishiguro.
Set at a time of unprecedented genetic enhancement and social division, “Klara and the Sun” begins with a solar-powered Artificial Friend named Klara (Jenna Ortega) longing to be chosen as a companion.
When she is selected by a sick teenager named Josie (Mia Tharia), she carefully studies her new owner and her family, learning about their emotions, rituals, and relationships in order to aid the sick girl in any way she can.
As she comes to know her human family, Klara learns that love is a combination of happiness, pain and sacrifice.
A techno fairytale, “Klara and the Sun” features some great, whimsical performances and visuals but is let down by a story that skims along the surface of what it means to be human. No amount of sunny optimism and cutesy pop psychology can make up for the script’s lack nuance and abundance of Hallmark-esque sentimentality.
Ortega hands in a spirited, but one-note, performance that relies on saucer-eyed looks and awkward, robotic movements. An overload of quirky, its committed, but it feels like a cartoon rather than a conduit for the story’s poignant aspects.
“Klara and the Sun” breathes the same air as “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” “After Yang” and “Robot & Frank” but without the emotional or intellectual impact those films provide.
