ALOHA: I am very confused.

Honestly, I am just confused. This film has absolutely baffled me and I did not think a film called ‘Aloha’ would have the power to do that. This film was watched in a period of time where I was pretty much bed-bound, spending my time binging on films from the genre that I thought this film was going to fit into, the Just Go With It, The Other Woman kind of vibe. However, I could not even tell you what genre this film fits into. It is truly one of the strangest watching experiences I’ve ever had. I was on pretty much a Bradley Cooper overdose at this point after watching all three Hangover movies

for the first time (which was an experience in itself), so that was the main thing that drew me in. Still, ‘Aloha’, sounds like a fun kind of rubbishy American rom-com, and the description gave me this idea as well. In reality, what I was watching was a very strange rom-sci-fi????? Maybe?????

I mean it, I am truly confused. I was expecting to watch Bradley Cooper stuck between his ex-girlfriend and a new love interest in Hawaii, but what I ended up watching was Bradley Cooper having dinner with Rachel McAdams and a mute (I think?) Jim from The Office while at the same time pissing off a very erratic Emma Stone by doing something with a satellite or the army or something of the sort?

This film felt very slow and very fast simultaneously, with very strange pacing. It seemed as though after literally one night together, Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone were in absolute love, and anything he did to upset her was literally the biggest betrayal ever, and I feel like because of how fast this happened it was so unbelievable and I really could not access relating to it at all. Despite this, I absolutely loved Emma Stone’s character, Ng, and thought the casting of her was brilliant. But still, I could not empathise at all when Gilcrest, Bradley Cooper’s character, upset her. Along with a very strange scene of Ng dancing with Bill Murray, this left me very lost with the film, despite loving the character herself. I pretty much finished the film feeling like I’d either only watched half the film sort of chopped up, or that I completely missed the first 20 minutes of it.

I did slightly tear up at a scene near the end where Gilcrest was ‘reunited’ as such with his daughter during a hula-dancing class (I know??), and let out a slight chuckle during Bradley Cooper and John Krasinski’s silent ‘conversation’, but I did not feel like I was watching two characters engaging. I felt like I was watching Bradley Cooper and John Krasinski doing some sort of sketch, which is why I’ve referred to them by their actor names for most of this.

Often I feel like an amazing cast can rescue a slightly rubbish film, but that was not the case in Aloha, with an absolutely brilliant cast, but a very very VERY confusing outcome. I felt lost, they seemed lost, the weird integration of science and military stuff felt very lost. And coming from someone who absolutely loves this kind of rubbish film, to the point of even enjoying Mean Girls 2, it says a lot that Aloha was lost on me.