Review of Aloha

Aloha (2015, Cameron Crowe) Cameron Crowe is somewhat of an anomaly. He produced some truly amazing films including one of my all-time favorites in "Almost Famous." Recently he has had some missteps with his films including his last outing "We Bought a Zoo" and again with his latest film, "Aloha." He assembles an amazing cast and sets the film in Hawaii but every performance is out of bounds weird from Emma Stone's crazily energetic fighter pilot to John Krasinsky's almost mute performance playing Rachael McAdams air force pilot husband. This film also tries to pull itself in two utterly opposite directions. There is the fairly standard romantic comedy angle and then there is this serious side dealing with the privatization of space travel headed by Bill Murray in another completely odd casting choice and rare non-comedic, antagonist role for Murray. Bradley Cooper plays Brian Gilchrest who was an Air Force guy who messed up in the field and found himself ostracized. Now he is invited back in on a limited basis as a contractor and he returns after years away to Hawaii where his ex has remarried and the Air Force pairs a young, up and coming pilot with him to babysit him or monitor his activities or something like that. Like a lot of this film many of the motivations are unclear. What's clear is that there is going to be a very odd, awkward love triangle between Stone, Cooper and McAdams and an even odder working situation as Cooper struggles with the ethics of working for Murray who may be attempting to take his control of space travel to the next level by deploying weapons in the sky which would be controlled by his company. Mix into this completely odd, politicized romantic comedy Hawaiian lore and legends, and you have a film that just meanders all over the place and never really finds its way. This film is just a hot mess from start to finish with it's odd storyline and completely wacky performances from just about everyone involved. I always hope that Crowe will return to the form that brought us such gems as "Almost Famous" and "Jerry Maguire" but here again is just another swing and a miss. Eric's Grade: D+