‘Klara and the Sun’ shines light on what doing too much looks like

By Danielle Cherry 

In a futuristic world where Artificial Intelligence (AI) friends are normal and being “lifted” to a heightened intelligence is crucial for humans—”Klara and the Sun” presents an enlightening analysis of perfection and human emotion. 

Klara (Jenna Ortega) is an AI friend, a robot who, iconically, is just a little bit too human for most people’s taste. Her only desire in life is to be chosen by a human and everyday she prays to the sun to grant her this wish.

When a girl notices Klara in the store window and takes the AI friend home, a slew of family dynamics, sickness and mechanical complications befall Klara’s new life and she has to learn how to navigate it all in order to prioritize what matters most. 

In a story so interweaved with AI, the writers do very little to take a decisive stance on whether AI is good or bad. In many ways “Klara and the Sun” shows more of the duality of AI usage. But because of this, it’s never clear whether the audience should feel elation or disgust towards the pitfall of events that occur. The audience never knows, and the ambiguity is arresting. 

Another aspect that is left unexplored is the stance taken towards religion. Throughout the story, Klara continuously prays to the sun. She believes that the sun gives power to everything on earth, even her own robotic nature. 

It is very unclear if the writers were pushing an agenda of the sun’s deity in life, or if they felt like praying to something would bring a more human side of Klara to life. Regardless, the choice creates odd moments in the movie that slow the pace and frankly jumble the story more than it needs too. 

Along the lines of the “sun-religion” plot, Klara’s human, Josie is a savant with so much brilliance yet so little to do with it. The “Lifted” experiment, where humans are genetically altered to be smarter, seems crucial to the plot, but does next to nothing in creating an allegory. It seems like a cheap way to keep humans relevant in a plot circling around AI.

As much as this movie tries to tell a story about the flaws of perfection and the complexities of AI, all of the dialogue gets lost in the many moving pieces. Sadly, the viewer is left wondering what they watched and if some semblance of the philosophy behind it all is worth keeping in their mind.  

Now, despite a plot that is doing too much, Jenna Ortega embodies the mechanics of Klara in a truly chilling way. Every movement is intentional, with limbs jerking and glitching in a way that makes it hard to remember Ortega is actually a human and not a robot.  

Maybe the sun plot was more for aesthetics than mental aspirations as sun flecks and refractions are used many times to convey emotion in Klara. There was true intention with the videography in order to capture feelings that Klara was unable to express. 

Klara is very human, but cinematically she is portrayed like a robot—experiencing glitches to her visual system. Audiences get to watch through Klara’s eyes as she processes a new environment while seeing every pixel and watching the view come into focus. 

If the point of this movie was to make me feel for the humans in the story, “Klara and the Sun” epically fails. Instead, audiences end up feeling for Klara more than the people she is meant to help. All of the characters around Klara feel cheap in comparison to the great care that is taken to make Klara a relatable character. 

Walking out of the theater I was left with a strange feeling that I was missing something, as if there was an underlying philosophy or message I was supposed to have retrieved from the murky depths of the plot. 

Was it that AI was good or had feelings? Was it that being normal was ok? Was it maybe that the sun is a religion for some people? Instead of choosing one thing and doing it well, “Klara and the Sun” unfortunately picks quantity over quality. 

Because of this, I left feeling as though my mind refracted many rays of the plot, but revealed nothing of any substance. 

“Klara and the Sun” is currently playing in theaters

Danielle Cherry is a junior communication major and is assistant editor and writer for A&E and passionate writer for Sports. She is a Missionary Kid from Germany and wonders why there was an almost “Hunger Games” Capitol plot in the middle of this movie. 

Images courtesy of Columbia Pictures and 3000 pictures