Review of Aloha (2015) by Joanna B — 05 Jul 2015

Measured against his previous Oscar nominated works (Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous), Aloha can only be described as an epic fail. Director Cameron Crowe's knack for pulling depth and feeling out of his actors and injecting it into likeable characters has taken a long walk off a short Hawaiian cliff in this contextually confused film.

Almost making a point out of bringing every flaw and negative his usually wonderful star studded cast possesses; this somewhat confusing money, myths and space driven film tries hard to be likeable marrying together a quirky 'ethnic' sense of humor with an undercurrent of double-dealing.

Celebrated military contractor Brian Gilcrest (Bradley Cooper) returns to the site of his greatest career triumph; arriving in Hawaii to 'supervise a gate blessing'.

Hoping to mend fences and rejoin the fold of eccentric billionaire businessman Carson Welch (Bill Murray) as well as reconnect with a long-ago love Tracy (Rachel McAdams).

A second chance in more ways than one, Brian is assigned a hard-charging Air Force watchdog Allison Ng (Emma Stone) to keep him on mission. But the way the stars align can't always be predicted... We'll that's at least what the screenwriter was going for.

The actors try hard to make the best of a bad lot as the films base premise thrives on relationships and interactions between its characters, but its only John Krasinski as the perpetually silent Woody and Alec Baldwin as the grumpy General that come out unscathed.

The Verdict: A sad mess of the early 70% feeling disjointed indie and later 30% coming together Hollywood rom-com style; Aloha as a whole is 90% disconnected and painful.

Published : Canberra Weekly Magazine.

Date of Publication : 18/06/2015.