Klara and the Sun review
The director of Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Jojo Rabbit turns Kazuo Ishiguro’s AI fable into a twee, tiresome tale of love and grief
TL;DR
- The film is criticized for being unbearably mannered, unspeakably acted, and lacking substantial or meaningful commentary.
- It adapts Kazuo Ishiguro's novel about artificial friends (AFs) for children in a post-WW3 world where the internet has been wiped out.
- The AFs have purple blood called PEC-9, which is noted as highly flammable.
- Klara, an earlier AF model played by Jenna Ortega, is solar-powered and worships the sun.
- Josie, a 14-year-old genius prodigy, is lonely and suffering from an unspecified illness, with her mother played by Amy Adams.
- The film is compared unfavorably to other AI-themed films like 'After Yang' and Hirokazu Kore-eda's work.
- The reviewer concludes the film is a sentimental and laborious mess with an unsatisfying twist ending.