Last week I told you to relate to Tomorrowland as a story for 10-year-old boys.
ALOHA
Director: Cameron Crowe
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Bill Murray, John Krasinski, Danny McBride, Alec Baldwin, Bill Camp, Jaeden Lieberher, Danielle Rose Russell, Michael Chernus
Rating: (PG)
Three and a half stars (out of five)
This week I am saying Aloha (Rialto and Readings) is a fairy story for adults, with the fantasy element being supplied by Polynesian mythology.
Go along for a nice journey to Hawaii, where Bradley Cooper flirts with Rachel McAdams and Emma Stone and looks all sweetly earnest as he declares his love for one of them.
For most of the time, it is a nice stress-free ride with tap-your-feet '80s music to keep the mood mellow.
However, if the fact that Cooper's character, Brian Gilcrest, is a military contractor and Stone plays a hot-shot air force pilot fools you into believing you are in for a realistic depiction of life on a military base in Hawaii, you are just going to be disappointed.
Brian works for a billionaire vying for control of the increasingly privatised satellite industry.
That this man, Carson Welsh, is played by Bill Murray tells you everything you need to know about how seriously to take the geopolitical setup of the film.
Actually, the fact that all the hard adult stuff makes no sense is not that much of a liability, because Aloha is not that type of movie.
Murray charms as a very bad man; Cooper charms as a man trying to do better than before; Stone charms with her sparky can-do attitude.
In fact, just about everyone in this is charming.
So grab a choc-top ice cream and enjoy.
- Christine Powley
