Review: Aloha

Aloha ostensibly centers around an emotionally damaged man who finds redemption thanks to that one great woman who believes in him. I say ostensibly because, unlike writer-director Cameron Crowe's previous work, the narrative is so splintered, dispersed, and incoherent that who knows what Aloha is really about or what Crowe had in mind in the first place.

Our man in plight is Brian Gilcrest (Bradley Cooper), who once believed in skies that promised a golden future. Slashed budgets force NASA to get in bed with billionaires, and the air force pilot hands in his wings to go to work as a defense contractor for the biggest billionaire of all, Carson Welch (Bill Murray). Gilcrest somehow misjudges one assignment and winds up wounded with almost two dozen broken bones and a limp as a souvenir. He's given a second chance by Welch, who wants him to finesse a local Hawaiian leader into blessing a pedestrian gate that is pivotal to Welch's realising his privatised space program.

The local leader is played by Dennis "Bumpy" Kanahele, the independence movement leader and descendant of the country's King Kamehameha. Wearing a T-shirt that reads "Hawaiian by Birth, American by Force," he's there to remind viewers and Gilcrest of the mainlander imperialism at play. There's been a significant deal of pre-release criticism leveled against Crowe for his depiction of a homogenised Hawaii and for the casting of Emma Stone as Captain Allison Ng, who every so often shares that she is a quarter Hawaiian. To be fair, Aloha is not as culturally insensitive as one would be led to believe. Remember that this is a film set on a U.S. military base, so it would only be reasonable that hardly nary a native would be seen in that setting.

Allison is more problematic, and not necessarily for the reasons one may think. Allison, with her belief in the island's folklore, serves to better this "brilliant, compelling, commanding wreck of a guy." The issue here is that Allison falls in love at seemingly first sight with Gilcrest and then spends the majority of the film like a mildly irritating dog nipping at his heels. Stone's expressiveness, both emotionally and physically, is part and parcel of her appeal. She's an oddball, goofy and adorable and hard not to love, but her playing of Allison (or Crowe's direction of her performance) as some overly enthusiastic screwball is off the mark.

Not that the rest of the cast fares any better. Cooper, blue-eyed and sun-kissed, is like a compass flailing to find true north. Rachel McAdams, whose natural resting state is to be gently seductive, seems mildly exasperated at being shoehorned into a situation that finds her character Tracy suddenly torn between former flame Gilcrest and Woody (John Krasinski), her husband of 13 years who is so distant and uncommunicative that he may as well be mute. Crowe has somehow managed to neuter his entire cast. No small feat considering that talented cast includes Alec Baldwin, who is a pretty tough elephant to tranquilise.

For a man whose wordsmanship is his bread and butter, Crowe stumbles - at times shockingly so - with the dialogue, which contains more clunkers than could be found in all his previous films combined. Crowe's words disintegrate as they are being spoken - they hold no weight, they spark no interest, they carry no insight. They simply do not connect.

Aloha

Directed by: Cameron Crowe

Written by: Cameron Crowe

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Bill Murray, John Krasinski, Alec Baldwin, Danny McBride, Jaeden Lieberher, Danielle Rose Russell, Ivana Milecevic, Dennis "Bumpy" Kanahele