When Cameron Crowe is at his best, there is nothing better - SAY ANYTHING, JERRY MAGUIRE, ALMOST FAMOUS, WE BOUGHT A ZOO. 

 

ALOHA is his latest release and it has a stellar cast, but sadly it's a mess.

The plot is quite confusing, almost on purpose, but the important part involves the homecoming of Bradley Cooper's Brian Gilcrest which affords him the opportunity to see Rachel McAdams' Tracy, the one he let slip away 13 years ago. Tracy has since met and married John Krasinski's Woody and they are raising two adorable children. How Brian could let someone as gorgeous and amazing as Tracy go is a real shock and when they explain what happened it makes Brian's behavior sound like a child's. Gilcrest has returned to Hawaii in the employ of Bill Murray's billionaire Carson Welch and he has been assigned a military liaison, Emma Stone's Allison Ng AKA the new love interest.

 

Cooper does not do his best work in ALOHA and we never understand what is so special about Brian Gilcrest. Early in the picture his task is to negotiate with old friend Bumpy who is a Hawaiian King. But Brian appears to have no negotiating skills and ultimately just agrees to everything Bumpy wants. This could have been done with a phone call. Brian accomplishes nothing special here. However this does result in one of the better sequences in the picture when Bumpy invites them to a fun dinner with a bunch of the locals.

 

You won't find a more engaging performer than Emma Stone. You can't take your eyes off of her when she is on screen. But the writing of her character is inconsistent almost to the point of making her annoying at times. And her scenes with Cooper range from real and engaging to shrill to bad sitcom. It makes no sense why she would be interested in this guy. And it's a big failure for Crowe who is usually so good at showing two people fall in love on screen.

 

Rachel McAdams is an equally engaging performer who really lights up the screen. She makes the most of her role and you really feel for her as she is torn between Brian, the love of her life, and Woody, her husband. McAdams' scenes with Cooper are some of the highlights in ALOHA.

John Krasinski does his best with Woody, the husband who won't talk. This idea is so forced in some scenes that it seems like a bad comedy sketch. Yet at other times it's handled beautifully and you can see how difficult it is for Tracy to deal with.

 

Bill Murray is not given very much to do as billionaire Carson Welch, but he seems to be having a lot of fun doing it, which is engaging. And any time you get to see Murray dance is a good time.

 

Danny McBride is completely wasted here. There is nothing for him to do in the screenplay and he makes no impression. If this were your only exposure to him, you would have no idea how brilliantly funny and talented this man is.

 

Alec Baldwin shows up for an extended cameo as General Dixon. His funniest scene has been glimpsed in the trailer and he makes the most of his screen time.

 

The plot of ALOHA which involves the plans of Murray's billionaire character is very secret and cryptic and you get pieces of it along the way. None of it is interesting. None of it is engaging. When it is all finally revealed and made clear in the end, it's like something out of an Austin Powers movie. I have no idea what Crowe was thinking.

 

ALOHA moves along without much of a plot to drive it. At times it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. And in a way, those are some of the best sequences where Crowe explores some of the relationships in the picture. Woody and Tracy's kids, Grace and Mitchell played by Danielle Rose Russell and Jaeden Lieberher get moments to shine as they interact with Brian and Allison. The Christmas party at the base is a fun sequence. But it never feels like it is going anywhere.

 

Aesthetically ALOHA is not very appealing and that's a strange thing to say about a picture filmed in Hawaii, one of the most beautiful places on Earth. But the cinematography doesn't do Hawaii any favors - you could never fall in love with the place from watching this picture. And the handheld photography and composition seemed awkward and sometimes distracting. 

 

ALOHA is an often confusing mess of a motion picture. And that is a huge disappointment from someone as talented as Cameron Crowe. But having said that Crowe's worst is better than most of the studio releases out there and there is enough good material in ALOHA to make it worth seeing. It's just not a must see, which is a shame.