What the hell is happening to Cameron Crowe? I'm all for filmmakers changing up their approach, their style, and moving outside their comfort zone, but Crowe seems legitimately lost with ALOHA, his love story/man adrift tale about Brian Gilcrest (Bradley Cooper), a one-time celebrated pilot turned military contractor who comes back to his old stomping ground in Hawaii to seal the deal on a major project for the U.S. space program. Naturally, there's a love interest; in fact, because Cooper is so handsome, there are two, and neither is especially convincing as the woman who will change the course of Gilcrest's downward-spiraling moral compass.
I don't expect the Crowe that made SAY ANYTHING..., JERRY MAGUIRE or ALMOST FAMOUS to keep telling the same story over and over again; that would be silly and tedious. But it does feel with ALOHA, Crowe himself is attempting to capture a bit of the old magic (romantic or otherwise) that made those films so great, and he misses the mark by so much that you have to wonder if there was studio interference involved in retooling the film, or if Crowe himself didn't feel as close to the material. One gets a sense that Crowe became fascinated with modern Hawaiian culture and the uneasy balance between the military's influence and the native Hawaiians, who are struggling to keep their lands and way of life their own (the presence of Nation of Hawaii leader Dennis "Bumpy" Kanahele as himself seems to lend some credibility to that theory). Cooper's Gilcrest is a man who took the time to befriend the Hawaiians, and it is this relationship that current bosses—including military industrialist Carson Welch (Bill Murray)—want to exploit.
But Crowe seems far more interested in illustrating how the ancient Hawaiian ways work to bond Gilcrest to his military liaison, Allison Ng (Emma Stone), a hard-nosed, quarter-Hawaiian, by-the-books soldier who hasn't had time for a personal life thanks to her focusing squarely on her military career. But then again, she hasn't previously met this level of handsome and charming and broken.
If the film had just been about the clashing personalities of the two dominant groups on the islands of Hawaii, this might have been a better film, but it wouldn't have felt much like a Cameron Crowe movie. If anything, the relationship stuff feels, at best, obligatory; at worst, it interferes with more interesting things going on in this story. It doesn't help that the other woman in Gilcrest's life is Tracy Woodside (Rachel McAdams), an ex-girlfriend from his previous stint in Hawaii many years earlier who seems to harbor the same grievances toward him that she did so long ago. She's presently married to an Air Force pilot (John Krasinski) who is so non-communicative that he literally doesn't speak for long stretches of the film, and he is rightfully concerned about his wife's reaction to Gilcrest's arrival on the island. It doesn't help that Gilcrest is always around their house, hanging with their kids and just generally being handsome and eager to talk about old feelings—good and bad.
Also along for the ride, although not really contributing much to the proceedings, is Danny McBride as another old friend of Gilcrest, who is still taking orders as part of the military detail assigned to the space program; and Alec Baldwin as General Dixon, who does little more than yell at people in a couple of scenes. If I'm getting the plot of the movie right, Welch is planning a space launch of a satellite but it also trying to sneak cargo on the mission that shouldn't be a part of it. The military is there to facilitate the launch and get the cooperation of the Hawaiians as far as acquiring land (in exchange for other land) to expand operations.
As surprising as it is to say, the real issues with ALOHA are with the script. Gilcrest is a character without a center. It's fine that he bounces from woman to woman, aiding the military and being friends with the locals, but nothing about the way he's portrayed here gives any sense as to where his actual interest and loyalties rest. Even a pure act of defiance against his bosses near the close of the film feels false and out of character (or maybe the better way to phrase that is that it adds to my confusion about what this character cares about). He seems genuinely taken with Ng, but never misses the chance to sort of flirt with Tracy. He's desperate for career relevance and mending fences with Welch, but he firmly believes in his bond with the Hawaiians. Perhaps most critically, these flaws in the screenplay made me care so little about how these people ended up that I lost total interest in the film at about the halfway point.
There's a temptation to blame one actor or another, but the truth is, they all seem a bit unsure what notes they're supposed to be hitting as these characters, and no one performance is especially lackluster. In truth, they're all flailing in their attempts to get their hooks into these broadly drawn phantoms meant to be people. Murray is turning in one of his least interesting performances in recent memory, seemingly given a license to vamp but having no clear what a billionaire asshole should act like. He's almost too likable for this part, although a dance sequence with he and Stone is one of the film's highlights, probably because it feels genuine.
Although I've never seen it performed, I've always like the title and ideas behind the play “Six Characters in Search of an Author,” and I can't think of a more apt conundrum for Aloha than that. There are times when I fully expected an actor to turn to the camera and beg for some type of motivational guidance from Camera Crowe, who has made a work that was likely more interesting to discuss leading up to shooting it than it is to actually watch. Even if you discover things to enjoy about ALOHA, I can't imagine anyone genuinely, whole-heartedly loving it. And dammit, I like enjoying Cameron Crowe films. I'm legitimately sad to see this one go so far astray with such a solid cast in a lovely, haunting location. But sink into the crystal blue water this one does.
