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Monday 9 November 2026

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Klara and The Sun

Marketing image of 'Klara and The Sun' film, used to illustrate post

26 October 2026 – I went with Cinema Club to Showcase Cinema to see ‘Klara and The Sun’ today.  The synopsis on the cinema website was as follows:

“Meet Klara, an Artificial Friend who wants nothing more than to find the perfect home. When Klara meets Josie, her innocent wonder and unwavering loyalty helps to heal her family and bring light to Josie’s complicated world.”

I felt that there was an attempt at humour through various devices in the film, and whilst I could see that they were intended to be humorous, they largely fell flat for me, and just seemed either overly-contrived, or just silly in their execution.

The leading members of the cast were: Jenna Ortega, Amy Adams and Mia Tharia; and the film was directed by Taika Waititi, who is also known for directing ‘Thor Ragnarok’ and ‘Jojo Rabbit’.  The screenplay was written by Taika Waititi, Dahvi Waller and Kazuo Ishiguro

The plot and setting were highly improbable and implausible, even for a Sci-Fi movie, and the acting seemed a bit soppy and somewhat condescending towards the audience.  I was not particularly impressed by this film, although not entirely surprised, and yet, found it entertaining enough.  I would not recommend it, but I wouldn’t completely dismiss it either.

I gave it a score of 6, whilst IMDB gave it 6.4, and the Rotten Tomatoes score was 2.6 (26%).


Fraser

 

AI Contribution: Claude provided a summary of UK reviews, which was then edited and checked for accuracy by Microsoft Copilot (see below).  No human verification took place.

Please provide a full summary of UK film reviews of the 2026 film ‘Klara and The Sun’, showing sources….

UK reviews of Klara and the Sun were largely negative, although not uniformly so. The Guardian, The Times and The Telegraph each awarded Taika Waititi’s adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel one star. The recurring objection was tonal: critics questioned whether its broad comedy and overt sentiment could convey the book’s quieter exploration of identity, artificial intelligence and grief.

Background. The film premiered at the BFI London Film Festival on 15 October 2026 and opened in UK cinemas on 23 October. The festival date is corroborated by BFI’s programme and contemporary premiere reporting; Screen International confirms the UK release date.

The one-star reviews

  • The Guardian (Peter Bradshaw), 1 star. Bradshaw criticised the film’s mannered comedy and sentimental handling of love, grief and AI. His original review was located, so this attribution need no longer rely on a round-up.
  • The Times (Kevin Maher), 1 star. Maher rejected the film’s sentimentality and was unimpressed by Ortega’s performance. The rating and attribution are corroborated by LBC and the Metacritic listings; the full original review was not directly verified.
  • The Telegraph (Tim Robey), 1 star. Robey considered Waititi’s comic approach ill-suited to the source material. The Telegraph’s own listing confirms the review and author; its rating and detailed criticism are corroborated through LBC and Metacritic rather than the full original text.

Other negative reviews

  • The Independent (Clarisse Loughrey), 2 stars. Loughrey questioned the film’s shift from the novel’s exploration of human identity towards a simpler message about love and friendship. The original review was located; Metacritic corroborates the rating through its equivalent score of 40/100.
  • Little White Lies (David Jenkins). Jenkins also criticised the adaptation’s comic treatment of the novel. Its rating is not a single one-star verdict: the original page gives 3/5 for Anticipation, 2/5 for Enjoyment and 1/5 for In Retrospect.

More sympathetic responses

  • Empire (Helen O’Hara), 3 stars. O’Hara found charm in Klara’s curiosity and Ortega’s performance, while criticising the uneven tone. The draft’s observation about trying to satisfy too many audiences belongs to Cortlyn Kelly’s RogerEbert.com review, not Empire.
  • Screen International (Dave Calhoun). Calhoun offered a qualified welcome, praising the performances and visuals but questioning the decision to widen the story beyond Klara’s restricted perspective. His original review also acknowledges an uneasy mixture of drama, science fiction and comedy.
  • Frame Rated (Robert English). This review was more ambivalent than the draft suggested. It identified Klara’s viewpoint as a potential barrier to audience engagement, rather than straightforwardly endorsing it. It should not be presented as an unqualified positive response.

Common threads

  • A recurring criticism was that comedy and sentiment weakened the novel’s subtler ideas; this was not a unanimous verdict.
  • Jenna Ortega. Responses differed: Maher was critical, while O’Hara and Calhoun found her performance appealing.
  • Emotional payoff. Some critics questioned whether the film earned its emotional resolution, but this should not be treated as a universal judgement.
  • Aggregate scores. Checked on 31 October 2026, Metacritic displayed 30/100 from 27 critic reviews, classified as Generally Unfavorable. The draft’s Rotten Tomatoes figure of 24% is supported by secondary listings, but the current percentage and review count were not exposed in the accessible original-page results. These aggregates include international critics and can change as reviews are added.

 

Overall, the reviews point to a largely unsuccessful adaptation rather than a complete absence of merit: its admirers found warmth in Ortega’s performance and the visual treatment, while its detractors felt the broad tone diminished Ishiguro’s complexity. Verification was based on accessible source pages and search results, not unrestricted access to every full review. Original reviews were located for The Guardian, The Independent, Little White Lies, Empire, Screen International and Frame Rated; The Times and The Telegraph’s detailed assessments remain partly dependent on secondary reporting.

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