Klara and the Sun, director Taika Waititi’s adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s bestselling novel, opens in theaters October 23. The film stars Jenna Ortega as Klara, an Artificial Friend who wants nothing more than to find the perfect home.
The pairing of Waititi and Ishiguro is one of the year’s most intriguing director-material matches. Waititi, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind Jojo Rabbit, built his reputation on finding warmth inside offbeat premises — exactly the sensibility Ishiguro’s tender, melancholic novel demands. For Ortega, the role continues a carefully chosen run of prestige projects alongside her franchise work.
A story of loyalty and light
When Klara meets Josie (Mia Tharia), each immediately senses a kindred spirit in the other. Josie has a fraught relationship with her mother (Amy Adams), and the family has suffered great loss — but Klara’s innocent wonder and unwavering loyalty begin to heal the family and bring light to Josie’s complicated world, per the film’s official synopsis.
The premise — an artificial being teaching humans about love — places the film in a rich cinematic lineage, but Ishiguro’s source material gives it a distinctive ache. Told from Klara’s naive, sun-worshipping perspective, the novel asks what love looks like to someone built to serve it, and the adaptation’s success will hinge on whether Waititi preserves that delicate point of view.
An acclaimed cast and crew
The cast includes Amy Adams, Mia Tharia and Aran Murphy, with Steve Buscemi and Natasha Lyonne. Based on the novel by Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro and written and directed by Academy Award winner Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit), the PG-13 drama runs 1 hour 56 minutes, according to Streaming Movie Night. The project arrives as one of the weekend’s prestige titles alongside Clayface and Laika’s Wildwood.
The ensemble balances awards-season heavyweights with rising talent. Adams, a multiple Oscar nominee, brings gravity to the maternal role, while Tharia — as Josie — carries the film’s emotional center opposite Ortega’s Klara. With Buscemi and Lyonne in support, the cast has the kind of depth that signals serious awards-season intent.
A prestige play for the fall
Opening against comic-book horror and family animation, Klara and the Sun is positioned as the weekend’s grown-up counterprogramming — the film for audiences seeking emotional depth over spectacle. Its PG-13 rating keeps it accessible, and the 1-hour-56-minute runtime makes it an easy theatrical commitment. If reviews land, it could ride the prestige wave deep into awards season.
