Klara and the Sun Review: Taika Waititi's Sunlit, Heartfelt Take on Ishiguro

If we had to pick one word for Taika Waititi's Klara and the Sun, it would be sweet. Unmistakably a Waititi film from the first frame to the last, it is lush in texture and full of joyful, tender moments.

We caught the Queensland preview at Angelika Cinemas in Woolloongabba on Wednesday night. The film is based on Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro's 2021 novel, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize, and it arrived in Australian cinemas on Thursday.

Director Taika Waititi and Jenna Ortega on the set of Klara and the Sun.

Jenna Ortega plays Klara, an Artificial Friend, or AF, a solar-powered companion built to be the perfect friend. Klara waits in a shabby store window until teenager Josie (Mia Tharia) chooses her, and she moves into a home with Josie and her mother, Chrissy (Amy Adams), where the relationship between mother and daughter is already strained. Natasha Lyonne plays the store manager and Steve Buscemi a scientist with plans of his own. Aran Murphy plays Rick, Josie's closest friend.

Mia Tharia and Jenna Ortega star in Klara and the Sun.

Klara's world comes alive through the sun. Klara believes in its healing rays, and Waititi treats it almost as a character, with lens flares and golden light pouring across the wheat fields of New Zealand's South Island. As Klara steps into a new place, her vision calibrates in fragments, a neat effect the filmmakers call "Klara-Vision". The costumes borrow from both past and future, which the designer describes as fashion from 50 years ago projected 40 years ahead.

Jenna Ortega and Natasha Lyonne star in Klara and the Sun.

The premise is not new, but it is beautifully told. At its heart is a mother's love and loss. Grief for one daughter and the fear of losing another drive Chrissy toward a desperate idea about what can be kept, and the film answers it gently. An individual's identity goes far beyond a collection of memories. It lives deeper, in the soulfulness that shapes every decision we make and the way we see and interact with the world.

Amy Adams, Jenna Ortega and Steve Buscemi star in Klara and the Sun.

The film is well paced, although it drags a little toward the middle. Ortega is the reason to stay, with an innocent, wide-eyed optimism that is a long way from Wednesday Addams. "Klara doesn't have the emotional wall that most of us possess," she says of the role.

It is a darling film with a simple yet poignant message. Highly recommended.

Klara and the Sun is in Australian cinemas now.