“I don’t even remember why we broke up,” says Brian (Bradley Cooper). “Because you’re a workaholic who creates work to avoid real work,” replies Tracy (Rachel McAdams). “Well, I’m still working on that,” answers Brian as he tries to get through dinner with his ex-girlfriend, her children, and her husband in the romantic comedy Aloha.
Brian Gilcrest, a celebrated military contractor who had some shady dealings in Afghanistan, returns to Hawaii – the place of his former career successes – to work for his old boss, Carson Welch (Bill Murray). Carson is a billionaire who needs Gilcrest to work a deal with the locals and supervise the “blessing of a pedestrian gate” which involves bargaining the removal and relocation of some ancient bones to make way for a mysterious satellite base and launch.
Not long after getting off the plane…in fact, in a matter of minutes…Brian finds himself facing his ex-girlfriend Tracy. Tracy’s very eager to finally tell Brian everything she’s always wanted to say to him about the end of their relationship even though it’s been 13 years and she’s married to an Air Force recruit (John Krasinski) and has two kids. After agreeing to her invitation to have dinner with Tracy and her family, Brian is introduced to his military handler Allison Ng, (Emma Stone), an energetic, fast-talking, by-the-book fighter pilot who almost instantly is drawn to Brian.
For the next week Allison gets on Brian’s nerves and begins to pique his interest while escorting him around Hawaii as he’s working to successfully close the deal with the natives and say a final goodbye to both Tracy and his troubled past.
Written and directed by Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous), Aloha is a cluttered, muddled misfire that suffers from too many sub-plots and a mismatched romance. Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone have zero chemistry together onscreen, and worse yet the scenes where they are supposed to be falling for each other feel horribly forced. Stone’s performance as Allison feels as though it belongs in another film altogether.
Rachel McAdams delivers the only performance in Aloha that actually displays any geniune emotions. The light, witty dialogue in McAdams and Cooper’s scene discussing the end of Tracy and Brian’s relationship (Brian didn’t go on the vacation she planned for them 13 years ago) changes swiftly when McAdams looks at Cooper and says softly, “Hey, I really loved you.” It’s one of the few scenes in the film that works and has the right balance of humor and heart.
John Krasinski is wasted as Woody, Tracy’s husband who barely speaks in the film. It’s a running gag but it’s never funny or effective. In fact, it’s just dumb. Bill Murray is also sadly underutilized as the eccentric, billionaire Carson whose motives for wanting a satellite base in Hawaii may not be quite so honest. With a total of only five short scenes, Murray’s not given enough opportunities to really do anything with the character.
With such a talented cast and a usually exceptional writer/director, it’s truly surprising that Aloha is such a passionless, dull, and forgettable movie. Aloha can mean both hello and goodbye, and in this case it’s best to interpret it as goodbye as the film never welcomes in the audience.
GRADE: C-
Release date: May 29, 2015
MPAA rating: PG-13 for some language including suggestive comments.
Running time: 105 minutes
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