Aloha

Aloha

On Tuesday night, writer-director Cameron Crowe stood before a packed house at a Los Angeles multiplex and introduced his newest film, “Aloha,” to an audience of media and regular moviegoers. That would be unusual enough established filmmakers don’t just show up randomly to say hello but what he said was even stranger.

It was a plea: Take this film for what it is, a love letter to Hawaii. Tune out the peripheral noise that’s surrounded it for months. Have an open mind and heart and enjoy yourself. He didn’t say “Sony hack,” but that’s clearly what Crowe meant: the release of embarrassing emails that showed his star-studded romantic comedy was in trouble based on early screenings. “Aloha” has also come under fire for its alleged lack of Hawaiian characters (though there are some).

Even if you didn’t know any of that going into the film, though, the feeling of tinkering and re-tinkering is inescapable. This is one rare Crowe film that could stand to be a little longer, that could use some more development in its characters and breathing room in their relationships. As it stands now, “Aloha” feels like several films at once, crammed together and sped up, with results that are emotionally hollow and narratively confusing.

You can see the editing, and not in a good way. It’s obvious in big developments that make you go: “Huh?” but also within individual scenes, with cutaways to different camera angles that disrupt the flow of dialogue. And the dialogue itself the thing Crowe made his name on in his great early films (“Say Anything,” “Jerry Maguire,” “Almost Famous”) so frequently strains for his signature poignancy here that it feels like a parody of a Crowe script.

For all its needless complications, though, “Aloha” can be summed up simply: It’s “Elizabethtown,” in Hawaii. So much here is so similar to Crowe’s 2005 film, which had previously been considered his least successful. It features a man who’s hit bottom, personally and professionally, who must return to his home of sorts to right some wrongs. In the process, he meets a perky and quirky young blonde who sees the innate good in this flawed creature and aggressively makes it her mission to make him happy again.

Bradley Cooper is the Orlando Bloom figure in the equation and Emma Stone is his Kirsten Dunst his manic pixie dream girl, if you will, since “Elizabethtown” is the movie that inspired that phrase.

Cooper stars as Brian Gilcrest, whose job is a little vague but seems to have something to do with being a former military man who nearly died in a missile attack in Afghanistan and now works for billionaire private defense contractor Carson Welch (Bill Murray), which requires him to return to his old Air Force base in Hawaii something about launching a satellite AND helping gain the native Hawaiians’ blessing for a new pedestrian gate; why it has to be him is anybody’s guess conveniently on the flight there he finds out that the pilot Woody (John Krasinski) happens to be married now to Tracy (Rachel McAdams), Brian’s ex-girlfriend from way back when, the one who got away, with whom he shares history. They’ve got two kids together now. And suddenly their marriage seems really unhappy for no reason at all.

Emma Stone’s Captain Ng is Brian’s escort and caretaker while he’s on the base. She’s stern and all business, until she isn’t, suddenly. One minute, the rising officer is giving crisp salutes; the next, she’s grinning ear to ear, strumming an acoustic guitar and singing a traditional folk song with the locals. As she reminds everyone within earshot, she’s a quarter Hawaiian and a quarter Chinese, if you can believe that so the mysticism of these cultures speaks to her on a deep level.

None of this person’s behavior makes sense from one scene to the next, including her out of nowhere (but admittedly enjoyable) dance number with Murray’s character to Hall & Oates’ “I Can’t Go for That.” (Soundtracks are always key to Crowe, the former rock journalist; this one also features the Tears for Fears classic “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.”)

Naturally Brian will fall in love with Ng and Ng will fall in love with Brian depicted largely through that tried-and-true cliché of a shopping montage but he must also reconcile his failed relationship with Tracy. And he must do Carson’s bidding or risk losing his current relationship with Ng. In addition to Murray’s underwritten character, “Aloha” doesn’t know what it wants to do with Danny McBride as a longtime friend of Brian’s who’s been put in charge of the base now (his chief personality trait is that he messes with his fingers while he talks) or Alec Baldwin as the gruff and insulting general who could play this role in his sleep.

So yes, there’s a lot going on here. Stranded at the center of it all in this flimsy love triangle are three actors who typically exude charisma: Cooper, Stone and McAdams. French cinematographer Eric Gautier (“The Motorcycle Diaries,” “Into the Wild”) shoots them all beautifully, with lighting that always captures their piercing eyes and strong cheekbones just so. And of course, the Hawaiian scenery is lovely. But a movie with such likable stars in such a beautiful setting should feel like a vacation itself, not work.

Watch Aloha For Free On Gomovies.