Review of Aloha (2015) by Michelle K — 29 May 2015

Aloha is a lovely little summer movie. It has everything a movie set in Hawaii could want: beautiful scenery, gorgeous people, awesome music; but it has a plot that includes everything too: from romantic entanglements to Hawaiian sovereignty issues, from arms race in space to the role of contractors in the military. We even have Chinese espionage and a big explosion. Myth and legends are emphasized heavily at the beginning yet all but disappeared at the end. The movie is so choke full of ideas/opinions it wants to share, it can only address each topic with a few words. Well, sometimes NO words. Unfortunately, more often than not, the audience gets only half a sentence, and had to puzzle out the rest.

Aloha means love, hello, goodbye, affection, peace, compassion and warm feeling. "Aloha" the movie is warm and lovely too. It has no villains, only people fraught with personality quarks and disorders; and in this movie, all is forgivable.

Emma Stone and Rachel McAdams both put in convincing performances. Bradley Cooper's character, on the other hand, moved from hostile cynical to giving up personal gain for Hawaiians, feels perfectly fake.

The emotions may seem contrived; but anyone who has ever lived in Hawaii will agree that there is a lot of Aloha Spirit in this movie -- therefore it is a perfect movie for a warm summer day (or night.).

I gave it three stars because I liked it more than disliked it; and I lived on the island of Oahu for 20 years. Only movie magic can mix all the different locations and make them looks like right next door.