Some movies are just difficult to quantify, and this is one of them.  Viewers do not learn what Aloha is about, at least plot-wise, until the final act.  Cameron Crowe’s film is a character piece.  We follow a disgraced scientist (Bradley Cooper), then his hung-ho Air Force escort (Emma Stone) as he returns to Hawaii and sees his former girlfriend (Rachel McAdams) and her recalcitrant husband (John Krasinski), all while becoming involved in some top secret project run by a kooky billionaire (Bill Murray) and overseen by uptight Air Force officers (Alec Baldwin, Danny McBride).  Mixed in is local spiritual folklore and custom, and pervading the whole enterprise is the sense that people with power should not be trusted.

Crowe’s film is odd from the get-go both in terms of story, which unfolds from the middle, and visualization, which ranges from uncomfortable closeups of bobbing-headed actors to hand-held shots taken from a child’s point-of-view.  Crowe avoids static shots until late in the story when they occur in the most intense scenes.  Crowe encourages his actors to smile even when their dialogue indicates negative feelings. The result is an odd, rather irritating style that is not at all satisfactory.

And yet, as things progress, certain decisions work, and work well.  The “silent body language” motif is funny at first when Krasinski refuses to talk, but assumes powerful import late in the story.  Emma Stone is terrific; this is the best I’ve ever seen her. As the story develops its gravitas the irritating style becomes less important, and the writing tighter and more effective.  The mysticism angle doesn’t really work for me, but I can see how it would add another dimension for other viewers.

Still, a key sequence involving a spacecraft isn’t realistic at all, nor is the immediate aftermath.  The story seems to dodge its way past obstacles and logic to its requisite happy ending.  Apart from a few moments that really, really work, this movie seems to be content to meander its way through its ultimately goofy story.  The performers are pleasant and the scenery is beautiful, but Aloha is a misfire.  ☆ ☆.  29 May 2015.