Aloha (Cameron Crowe, 2015)

[mfunk9786]

Leaked Sony e-mails forecasted the poor reception to this movie months ago

[hearthesilence]

God, the saddest thing about those emails is the awkward silence that greeted Crowe's enthusiastic "I'm ready to direct the Steve Jobs movie!"

[Dylan]

The savage word of mouth motivated me to read the review on RogerEbert.com, and I found an interesting quote:

As she [Emma Stone's character] repeatedly points out, she’s a quarter Hawaiian—and a quarter Chinese, if you can believe that

Curious if Crowe intended this as a strange homage to how Jennifer Jones in Love Is a Many Splendored Thing declares over and over and over again throughout the entire movie that she's part Chinese, right until the final scenes if I recall correctly. And it's completely unbelievable all twenty or so times she says it.

Also interesting how the cinematographer for Aloha is Eric Gautier, who shot some of the the final films of Alain Resnais.

[movielocke]

My wife really wanted to see this, so despite the bad reviews (which she wasn't aware of) we went this morning.

My God, it is terrible, and I'm not one to shit on romantic comedies (which it isn't really, as there's no romance in this .... triangle?), but this is just functionally a wildly disjointed bad movie.

So Bradley Cooper is an astronaut. Wait he's a pilot. Wait he's in the military. Wait he's an independent contractor.

Spoiler

Wait he's a computer genius hacker.

I think there are probably eight different versions of this film shot that are all very different films. and we're left with a bizarre amalgamation of unending notes and reshoots from well meaning producers and screenings that went badly.

There's a version where ex flame Rachel McAdams is a single Mom, but notes or screenings caused them to reshoot to give her a husband.

There's a version where Emma Stone is a femme fatale in on it all meant to get good guy Bradley Cooper to leverage his connections and friendships and unwittingly join up with the billionaire and compromise his principles

Spoiler

but notes or screenings caused them to reshoot to make her nice and have cooper end up with her.

There's a version deeply embued in Hawaiian mysticism and all the sporadic references to the Arrival Myth actually mean something.

There's a version where the kid shooting his camera at everything actually matters more than the horrific clumsy reveal.

There's a version where Cooper is in deep cover and is a sting operation meant to expose the billionaire.

Spoiler

There's a version where nuclear weapons and Chinese hackers and international waters rocket launch pads and secret la haina butcher shop military computer installations somehow make sense being included.

There's probably even a version where the billionaire is a good guy and the military is bad.

There's probably a version that explains why

Spoiler

Cooper's buddy at a telescope is part of this operation and is able to bring down a satellite with the magical power of music

Oh, and let's not forget the terribly conceived and terribly color graded reshoot scene in the "afghanistan" desert of the hollywood hills that comes out of nowhere to explain some backstory. It's a new level of didacticism that's nearly as bad as Bill Murry's line, "I knew about the skimming, you thought I didn't know, but I knew all along." Which has nothing to do with anything, really, in the film.

There is not one, but two scenes at the end of the film with Alec Baldwin. Both of them are clearly, completely 100% reshoots, both are different options for ending the film. For some bizarre reason they decided to include both.

Which means on top of everything else, the film never seems to end. It has more endings than Return of the King. the pace of the final ten-fifteen minute denouement is so dire and leaden that it makes this 100 minute film feel as though it is three hours long.

The dialogue is catastrophically bad. Insanely didactic and on the nose throughout. There are a handful of scenes that play out nicely, somewhat natural, but they're usually interrupted with a cringeworthy insert or cutaway line of dialogue that is horrific in its awkwardness.

It's sad how incoherent the entire thing is.

[Zot!]

Famous Asian, Alexa Chung...so not so far out actually.

[Andre Jurieu]

How has this thread lasted so long without anyone mentioning Donna Chang (Changstein)?

[MoonlitKnight]

I personally also never would've guessed either Olivia Munn or Shay Mitchell were half-East Asian if they'd never said so. :-s

[Andre Jurieu]

Really? Those two seemed kind of obvious to me.

I was actually surprised that Munn wasn't given more serious consideration for this project, because I immediately thought of her when they described the character. Then again, maybe the script doesn't have enough mentions of how attractive the character is for Munn to accept the role.

[lacritfan]

The Descendants was another Hawaii-set film with an all white cast that avoided controversy, mostly because it had a good script and George Clooney's character was generations removed from his Hawaiian ancestors.
Crowe and the studio probably should've come up with a better title than Aloha, one that doesn't sum up an entire culture without representing it, though it is better than Deep Tiki.
As far as Emma Stone, I'd say she's a little more believable as half-Asian than Anthony Hopkins

Spoiler

as an African-American in The Human Stain.

[Andre Jurieu]

Crowe and the studio probably should've come up with a better title than Aloha, one that doesn't sum up an entire culture without representing it, though it is better than Deep Tiki.

I haven't seen the movie (yet?), but - at least based on the trailer - I thought the choice of title was fitting in a saccharine sort of way (it is mid-life Crowe material), because Cooper's character is using his time in Hawaii to basically conclude his relationship with his ex (McAdams) and begin a new relationship with his guide (Stone). Probably not the most sophisticated use of the term and it's cultural significance, but we're talking about a studio-backed Cameron Crowe summer rom-com, so maybe I'm setting my stadards/expectations quite low.

As far as Emma Stone, I'd say she's a little more believable as half-Asian than Anthony Hopkins

Spoiler

as an African-American in The Human Stain.

Yeah, the casting wasn't great, but I thought the entire point of that movie (like half of the plot of Sirk's Imitation of Life) was that the character's outward appearance is able to conceal ethnicity. With Stone's character, I'm less inclined to believe the trait involving her ethnicity considering her facial features and hair colour don't seem to support the trait.

[lacritfan]

Crowe apologizes for Emma Stone casting.

[domino harvey]

Yeah, this isn't very good (though it's not as bad movielocke's teardown above makes it sound). Outrage over the film's imagined sins were unjustified, to the surprise of no one, and the reason they quieted down upon release is that there are plenty of actual problems present here to focus on instead. Emma Stone is given an embarrassing de-evolution of Kirsten Dunst's selfless love interest in Elizabethtown and her character as written and directed exhibits zero chemistry with anyone. Stone accordingly overcompensates by being unfathomably plucky and "lovable" with such enthusiastic energy that it's clear she's basically playing off herself and none of her co-stars. But at least Emma Stone gives us Emma Stone being Emma Stone, even if it is in the service of nothing. Bradley Cooper and Bill Murray are completely phoned in, Alec Baldwin does the same shtick he always does of late, John Krasinski was apparently hired solely to repeat those smug grimaces he gave the camera on the Office via full-body apathy, and I'm not really sure where Rachel McAdams even falls into the plot (this would be a good double feature with To the Wonder: "Why Is Rachel McAdams' Character In This Movie?"). I think I may have chuckled twice, though I can't remember what at, and very little of the film makes narrative sense. I can't believe this was Crowe's passion project, there is nothing left on the screen that merits a second thought, much less years of devotion to getting it made.

[hellomoviepeople]

It's been a while since I've seen this and I've only seen it once.

I think there is something interesting about this film that hinders the critiquing of it. It, to a certain degree, resists understanding, categorization, and analysis because it's features continually arrive and leave. Aloha! It has boyhood dreams, mythology, history, politics, space tech, mysticism, romantic love (Stone and Cooper, especially Stone), espionage, parenting (Krasinski disconnected from his father role), marriage deterioration, a long lost biological father, love with a history (McAdams and Cooper), love that binds (Krasinski, McAdams) and more.

It's maybe a movie about the many varied, emotional and physical spaces we continually pass to and from. Life is full of aloha! Cooper's character is, in his later years in life and in a very life-complicated way, leaving space and coming back down to earth before it's too late? Cooper's character is saying goodbye to a lost love and hello to a future love, a future way of loving that involves a more dynamic awareness of all the possible hellos and goodbyes in life?

I agree that there are maybe some missed opportunities for fine tuning. It maybe has more of an attention deficit feel than the beauty in the aloha concept. The Stone/Cooper relationship received some valid criticism in this thread. Maybe we're supposed to quickly get that they each offer the other things the other does not possess. He's learning to say goodbye to his past and she's learning to say hello to her future? Or maybe their bond is that they share this uncovering of the "aloha" in their lives. Maybe the final scenes between the two got lost, implying a "happily ever after" when the intention is to imply "who knows?" On the whole, I was intrigued. I think I'm not disappointed with this film because I generally like this kind of film.