Aloha seems to operate under several false assumptions: that we’re instantly familiar with (and besotted by) its main character, a former military man turned government contractor, played by Bradley Cooper; that a frantically moving camera can make up for a complete lack of dramatic tension; that it isn’t eyebrow-raising, at the very least, to cast Emma Stone as a fighter pilot who is one-quarter, native Hawaiian. Perhaps the Cameron Crowe of Say Anything… and Jerry Maguire would have been able to write his way out of this mess, but this isn’t even the Cameron Crowe of Elizabethtown. A rough draft at best – or perhaps missing its entire first act – Aloha wastes not only Cooper and Stone, but also Rachel McAdams, Bill Murray, John Krasinski, Danny McBride and Alec Baldwin, all of whom struggle mightily to give their scenes the sort of emotional authenticity for which Crowe was once known. Instead, this is a tortured romantic comedy that’s fatally unaware of its own incoherence – both in terms of narrative and character. Cameron Crowe, where have you gone?
