The reviews are in for Taika Waititi‘s adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro‘s novel “Klara and the Sun” — and they are brutal. After its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on October 15, 2026, the film debuted on Rotten Tomatoes with a 20% Tomatometer score from its first 10 reviews, making it the lowest-rated film of Waititi’s career. It also opened with a 27 on Metacritic, firmly in “generally unfavorable” territory.
Klara and the Sun (Credits: Sony Pictures Releasing)
The film stars Jenna Ortega as Klara, a solar-powered android companion purchased by a family for their ailing daughter Josie, played by Mia Tharia. Amy Adams plays Josie’s mother, with Aran Murphy, Steve Buscemi (as the scientist Capaldi), and Natasha Lyonne rounding out the cast. Waititi co-wrote the screenplay with Dahvi Waller, and the film runs 116 minutes with a PG-13 rating.
The film has had a long, troubled road to theaters. Announced in 2020 and finished filming in April 2024, it sat on the shelf until Sony Pictures Releasing finally pulled it down and set a October 23, 2026 theatrical release date for the US and UK — less than a week after its festival premiere.
What Critics Are Saying
The sharpest attacks come from critics who believe Waititi fundamentally misunderstood the source material. Variety‘s review argues that adapting Ishiguro’s “solemnly complex, questioning novel” as a cockeyed child’s-eye comedy was ruinous, suggesting Waititi ranks near the bottom tier of auteurs one would enlist for such an adaptation.
David Jenkins of Little White Lies called it “a garbled mess of half-cocked speculative sci-fi and sentimental platitudes, with Klara’s fuzzy logic dragging us along on a circuitous journey without any satisfying destination.” Kevin Maher of The Times went further, labeling it “a hopeless film, slippery and mendacious, full of gross Hallmark sentiment.”
Tim Robey of The Telegraph declared it “excruciatingly misjudged” and possibly “the most infantile film of the year,” while Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent distilled the central complaint: “The book was about who we fundamentally are, now and tomorrow. The film is about the power of love and friendship. That seems like quite the downgrade.”
A Rough Stretch For Ortega And Waititi
The 20% debut falls below even Waititi’s previous low point, “Next Goal Wins” at 46%, and well under “Thor: Love and Thunder”, which was already considered a disappointment for the Oscar-winning director of “Jojo Rabbit”. For Ortega, it continues a rocky run — “Death of a Unicorn” (52%) and “Hurry Up Tomorrow” (25%) both failed to impress critics, leaving “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” (76%) as her last “fresh” film.
There is one sliver of hope for Sony: audiences have been kinder to Ortega’s movies than critics, with 76% audience scores for Death of a Unicorn and 60% for Hurry Up Tomorrow. Current projections have the sci-fi drama opening to a modest $6–10 million when it hits theaters on October 23. Whether general audiences find the life in Klara that critics could not remains to be seen.
Also Read: Jenna Ortega Wants ‘Klara And The Sun’ To Remind People To ‘Put Down The Phones’
Source: Variety — read the full story there.
