Written, Produced and Directed by Cameron Crowe
** (two stars)
RATED PG 13
To anyone who has known me or has followed my exploits upon Savage Cinema, it is no secret whatsoever about how much the writing and films of Cameron Crowe means to me. He is indeed one of my personal heroes, whose idiosyncratic artistic vision, which is fueled by an unabashed earnestness, unrepentant sentimentality and eloquent sincerity, is essentially unheard of within the cut-throat industries of music, journalism and most certainly, Hollywood. It truly amazes me that he has been able to survive within these unsympathetic, and increasingly cynical and downright mercenary, industries for so much of his life and frankly, my life has without question been the better for his unique and defiantly artistic presence.
Which, of course, makes this review a bit painful to write.
Cameron Crowe's "Aloha" is a failure, albeit a most noble one. As we live within a time when sequels, re-boots and re-imagining continue to rule the day at the expense of nearly anything other than some costumed superhero/CGI extravaganza being made, "Aloha" does represent a film of refreshing originality combined with the types of personal statements that Crowe has injected into all of his work. That being said, it is a bit of a mess. Not initially. But it is a film that seems to unravel before your eyes with characters, situations and motivations not fitting together and flowing in the way you would expect from a Cameron Crowe film. While not nearly the disaster many film critics and media outlets are attempting to lead you to believe (trust me, I can think of hundreds of films that are so much worse than anything on display here), "Aloha," despite its best intentions, is Crowe's weakest film by a mile.
"Aloha" stars Bradley Cooper as Brian Gilcrest, a disgraced military man injured in Afghanistan and now employed as a contractor for private billionaire Carson Welch (Bill Murray), who wishes to have Brian assist him with the launch a new satellite in Hawaii. Upon arriving on the Hawaiian military base, Brian is soon reunited with his former girlfriend Tracy Woodside (Rachel McAdams), who is now married to the taciturn military pilot John "Woody" Woodside (John Krasinski) and is also Mother to two children, the Hawaiian mythology buff/video camera carrying Mitchell (Jaeden Lieberher) and teenage daughter Gracie (Danielle Rose Russell).
Entrusted to Brian as his no-nonsense, highly strung military liaison Captain Allison Ng (Emma Stone), whose consistently inquisitive demeanor and near devotional attitudes towards the traditions, customs and mythologies of Hawaii run counter point to the internally troubled Brian, despite a growing attraction for each other.
As Brian navigates his past with Tracy, a potential future with Allison and comes to terms with Carson Welch's more nefarious plans covertly hidden within the satellite launch, he reaches a personal crossroads at which he will discover if redemption is in the cards for his damaged spirit.
Cameron Crowe's "Aloha," in many ways, fits very snuggly with the remainder of his cinematic ouevre. With the character of Brian Gilcrest, Crowe again presents us with an emotionally closed male desperately in need of spiritual renewal, just like the fired sports agent in "Jerry Maguire" (1996), the suicidal athletic shoe developer in the unfairly maligned "Elizabethtown" (2005) and even the grieving journalist/Father in the warmly artful family film "We Bought A Zoo" (2011). And alongside essentially every film he has made, "Aloha" also deals profoundly with themes of maintaining integrity in a world that refuses to recognize that virtue as the most valuable currency to attain and what having integrity means in crafting one's identity.
Yet, the familiar themes are not presented as mere re-treads of past glories. This time, Crowe has focused his attention upon no less than the militarization, and therefore privatization, of outer space itself, and at the expense of the natural beauty the world offers to everyone, plus the history and cultures contained within the Earth. For if one is to own the skies, what else could possibly be left, especially within the rich landscapes of Hawaii?
With that, "Aloha" certainly has much more on its mind than just serving as a mere romantic comedy set in a tropical paradise. Even so, I felt that the love story contained within the film was actually the least interesting element, as it contained somewhat of a "been there-done that" quality that paled in comparison to the other story elements presented to us. Frankly, what interested me even more within the interpersonal love triangle of the film (such as it is), was the history contained between Brian Gilcrest and Tracy Woodside, which does play out into life altering consequences. But here, is where I felt the film ran into many of its considerable problems.
"Aloha" is actually the rare film that actually feels as if there is a greater, longer film lurking inside the film that is currently screening, as evidenced by the sequences involving Rachel McAdams, which seem severely truncated plus elements that would flesh out the military story as well as Brian and Allison's respective back stories. The film's final scene in particular, a wordless exchange between Brian and Tracy's daughter Gracie, is urgently, achingly beautiful and moving despite all of the film's flaws, and fully significant that there is a much better, more deeply satisfying film to be made from this material.
The long gestation of "Aloha" has indeed been a painful one. As far back as seven years ago, Crowe's screenplay was sought after by several studios and was at one point set to film with Ben Stiller and Reese Witherspoon in the leads before being delayed. Since that period, "Aloha" has been under fire as being the subject of some viciously negative e-mails revealed after the hack of Sony Pictures, plus vehement declarations of "whitewashing" as the film yet another one that deals with a predominantly Caucasian cast in Hawaiian society and even more controversially, the casting of Emma Stone as a character who is 1/4 Hawaiian. Add to that mix the delay of the films release from Christmas 2014, the blistering tone of the negative reviews and dismal box office, it seems that we just have one of those situations that, for whatever reasons, the stars just were not in alignment for this film.
To address the major controversies of the film, I offer these words to you. As for the "whitewashing" aspect of "Aloha," I emphatically toss those criticisms aside as I felt that Crowe was deeply reverential to Hawaii, its people, the land, its customs and mythologies as all of those elements are woven directly into the plot itself. As the bulk of the film takes places upon the military base, it felt to me more than appropriate that we would be viewing more Caucasian individuals, and furthermore, Crowe weaves in the tenuous relationship between the military and the inhabitants and local leaders of the Hawaiian islands, including Hawaiian nationalist leader Dennis "Bumpy" Kanahele, who portrays himself, thus securing a sense of authenticity and respect.
With regards to the casting of Emma Stone as a woman who is 1/4 Hawaiian, in Crowe's own words, as he wrote so exquisitely upon his blog/fan site "The Uncool":
"As far back as 2007, Captain Allison Ng was written to be a super-proud 1/4 Hawaiian who was frustrated that, by all outward appearances, she looked nothing like one. A half-Chinese father was meant to show the surprising mix of cultures often prevalent in Hawaii. Extremely proud of her heritage, she feels personally compelled to over-explain every chance she gets. The character was based on a real-life, red -headed local who did just that."
Having seen the finished film, that description is precisely what was on the screen (although it does feel that some crucial material may have been edited out--more on that later), so I have no issue whatsoever with the casting in this case. In fact, the controversy does indeed, to me, provide further insight into how we, as a society views race and race representations and in this case, it seems that the criticisms say more about those administering the criticism than Cameron Crowe because hey, do all people that are 1/4 Hawaiian look the same?
All of that being said, I am not here to review the controversy or even to review Cameron Crowe's intent. All I can do is to review what is on the screen, and truthfully, I did find much to admire about the film from the gorgeous cinematography from Eric Gautier, the wistful score from Composers Jonsi and Alex and unquestionably, Crowe has again compiled one of the best cinematic mix tapes you will hear within the soundtrack for "Aloha."
While I felt that there were many good scenes, a solid opening stretch and strong performances throughout, most notably from Bradley Cooper and Bill Murray, not everything really worked out that well. Emma Stone, who is typically so very right in her performances, felt awkward to me this time around. Yes, the character is awkward but her rhythms never seemed to mesh that well or even that convincingly with Cooper's making their romance the only one in a Crowe film that I just have not been terribly invested with. Additionally, a character portrayed by Danny McBride seems to exist as just an element of quirkiness that never pays off and is in fact, more than a bit annoying. And one terrific early scene where Bradley Cooper and John Krasinski's characters exchange a wordless dialogue as an ode to a "strong but silent" comedy of masculine manners, more than overplays its hand when it is repeated in another sequence near the end of the film.
But mostly, "Aloha" just felt like a film that the studio got its hands on and re-edited within an inch of its life, attempting to re-create the financial success of "Jerry Maguire" but without knowing how and why that film worked so emotionally and euphorically in the first place. Based upon Crowe's work as a journalist, he has demonstrated his thoroughness and careful attention to detail time and again within his films and documentaries, so the almost scattershot, short cut nature of "Aloha," especially as the film continues, feels completely against his character and artistic aesthetic. There have already been mentions of the DVD/Blu-Ray release containing a plethora of deleted scenes that will clarify matters but if the studio just allowed him to make the film he wished to see in the first place, there was the chance that we would be seeing a film that felt to be more complete today.
Even so, I do feel that a filmmaker of Cameron Crowe's style and disposition has now found himself in real life almost existing as one of the characters within his own films. He is a filmmaker who is indeed fighting the good fight to retain a sense of integrity and determination to helm personal stories within an industry that continues to lean heavily in the direction of the impersonal. Even the vintage studio logos that open "Aloha" (and even "Elizabethtown") make the experience to feel as if he is making a statement that is nothing less than "Quixotian." But is it all worth it if the creation is going to be this arduous? Perhaps it is time that Crowe either solicit a "Director's Cut" clause in his contracts or that he leave the major studio system behind altogether and move to a more independent realm, like Richard Linklater...because you know there is no way that a major studio in 2015 would have ever funded a project like "Boyhood" (2014)!
As I previously stated, Cameron Crowe has survived within this business for so much of his life and I am certain that he will weather this particularly harsh storm and emerge on the other side stronger than ever. I have confidence that he will one day deliver another top-flight winner. But for now, "Aloha" exists almost like that film's characters: bashed around, sad, disillusioned, and even discombobulated.
But not fully defeated.
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