ALOHA

Aloha 2015: Aloha tells the story of Brad Gilcrest, a celebrated former military pilot turned contractor who returns to Hawaii, the place he achieved the greatest accolades of his military career. Now employed by Carson Welch (Bill Murray), Brad is on a ceremonial mission to gain favor of Hawaiian elders to launch Welch's satellite into space. He is assigned a military liaison named Allison Ng (Emma Stone) who is of Hawaiian decent to help along with this task. During his stay Brad also runs into his former lover Tracey Woodside (Rachel McAdams) and her husband "Woody" Woodside (John Krasinski). Brad finds himself caught between his job, regret and potentially a new path for love and happiness. I always enjoyed Cameron Crowe's ability to write such amazing characters - many of who are deemed special by the perceptions and standards of the American public and and then strip them down to being relatable to everyone. Unfortunately, he's trying to balance messages of the woes of businessmen buying themselves into the military and breaks away to shots that try to loosely tie Hawaiian culture into the themes of his story, both of which are extremely flimsy. I have zero problems with that subject matter but it took away from the core of what Cameron Crowe is known for - the interpersonal relationships of people. I think his subplots should have been left to a political thriller that he could have explored with a full film instead of short changing the characters that I was ready to like as much as the actors that portrayed them. With lesser actors this film could have turned out to be a far huger mess than the final product. FINAL REVIEW: 2.5 out of 4 Stars