Aloha (2015)

Aloha (2015)

Sometimes you have to say goodbye before you can say hello.

In Aloha, a celebrated military contractor Gilcrest (Bradley Cooper) returns to the site of his greatest career triumphs – the US Space program in Honolulu, Hawaii – and reconnects with a long-ago love (Rachel McAdams) while unexpectedly falling for the hard-charging Air Force watchdog (Emma Stone) assigned to him. Gilcrest gets a second chance to get on better terms with Tracy – a former girlfriend who has moved on and made a family in the many years since their parting – coincides with a second chance to remake a career that has reached a breaking point. Once the most talented and in-demand military contractor in the business, he’s stinging from a recent failure and only now is getting the opportunity to show that he’s still got what it takes to lead a mission. A new assignment brings Gilcrest back to his old stomping grounds of Hawaii.

Information

Rachel as:	Tracy Woodside
Other (voice) cast:	Bradley Cooper (Brian Gilcrest), Emma Stone (Allison Ng), Bill Murray (Carson Welch), John Krasinski (John ‘Woody’ Woodside), Alec Baldwin (General Dixon), Danny McBride (Colonel ‘Fingers’ Lacy).
Alternative Title:	Deep Tiki, Untitled Hawaii Project
Directed by:	Cameron Crowe
Written by:	Cameron Crowe
Production Status:	Available on DVD/Blu-Ray/Digital HD
World Premiere:	May 27, 2015 in Hollywood, United States
Theatrical Release:	May 29, 2015 (US) \| September 4, 2015 (UK)
Genre:	Comedy/Romance/Adventure
Rated:	PG-13 for some language including suggestive comments.
Distributor:	Sony Pictures
Run time:	105 min
Production budget:	$37.000.000 (Estimated)
Box office:	$21,067,116 (US) \| $26,250,020 (Worldwide)
Producers:	Cameron Crowe, Scott Rudin
Original Music by:	Jónsi & Alex
Cinematography by:	Eric Gautier

Related Media

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Production Notes

Crowe says that if Rachel McAdams’ character is about the past, then “Emma’s character is about the future,” he says. “Emma Stone plays a captain in the military, a fighter pilot who is streaking across the sky. She has lived on the elixir of idealism and ambition, and she’s going come across what happens when you fall in love with a guy who’s living in the gray area. What can you bring to him, and what can he bring to you?”

Gilcrest’s relationship with Ng will only move forward if he can reach a closure on his past – including his ex, Tracy, played by Rachel McAdams. It’s not that he carries a torch for her, though their chemistry is still there; rather, it’s only clear once they get together that all of the reasons they broke up haven’t gone away, mostly because Gilcrest has never faced the music.

When McAdams first read the script, she instantly recognized that the character of Tracy was like nothing she’d ever come across before. “She was a complicated, interesting woman with lots on her plate, at a very important time in her life,” she says. “It was just a very rich and colorful character, and I love how Cameron writes women. I knew Tracy had been in his head a long time, so there was a little bit of pressure to get where he saw her going, but at the same time it was a wonderful challenge.”

“Tracy, Rachel McAdams’ character, represents an unfinished love,” says Crowe. “Rachel brings such soul and depth and humanity, wondering about a great lost love, Gilcrest, and wondering about the choice that she made and the man that she ultimately married. Rachel is one of the very few actors that would give you that feeling of all of the real complexities that we have in thinking about the past, lost love, future love, and all the opportunities that are either lost or still ahead of you. She questions whether she married the right guy; she questions how that relationship with Gilcrest fell apart. She represents a question about the past that needs to be resolved.”

Having also worked with Bradley Cooper ten years ago on the smash comedy Wedding Crashers, McAdams says, “It was such a wonderful thing to come to work with Bradley every day because he has so much passion not just for the character, but the whole film and the whole process. He just comes at everything with energy, enthusiasm and generosity.”

Tracy is now married to Woody, a calm and soft-spoken Air Force C-17 pilot – in fact, he’s so soft-spoken that he’s often silent. Together, they have two kids: a 12-year-old daughter Grace, and 10-year-old son, Mitchell. Woody is played by John Krasinski, best known for his role as Jim Halpert on the popular long-running NBC series “The Office.” “There’s something really calm and timeless in a 1940s/50s way about this guy,” he says. Like many men, he says, he takes his responsibilities as a husband and father very seriously – and those responsibilities can be a joy, but also a burden. “Being a dad is one of the big weights on him, but also the big draw for why he gets up every single day.”

“You think of John as such a fun and outgoing guy, but he has this other really sweet, stoic, heroic side to him, too,” praises his co-star, Rachel McAdams. “He was such a great presence on set, always making everybody laugh and keeping it light, but he also has that still-waters-running-deep quality that’s such an integral part of Woody.”

Continue to read production notes

Production Process

Production began in Honolulu, Hawaii on September 26, 2013.

Trivia & Facts

This is the second time that Rachel works with Bradley Cooper, they previously worked together in “Wedding Crashers” (2005).

Quotes from Rachel

“I just loved the script and thought it was like nothing I had ever come across before. My character Tracy was a complicated woman with lots on her plate, at a very important time in her life. So it’s very rich and colourful and I love how Cameron writes women.”
–On what attracted her to Aloha (Hello! UK)

“It’s such a wonderful thing to work with Bradley because he has so much passion, not just for his character but for the whole film and the whole process. He approaches every scene like he wants it to be the best scene ever filmed, ever. He has such energy, enthusiasm and generosity.”
–On what attracted her to Aloha (Hello! UK)

Quotes from Cast & Crew

“Rachel brings such soul and depth and humanity, wondering about a great lost love, Gilcrest, and wondering about the choice that she made and the man that she ultimately married. Rachel is one of the very few actors that would give you that feeling of all of the real complexities that we have in thinking about the past, lost love, future love, and all the opportunities that are either lost or still ahead of you.”
–Cameron Crowe, director (Production Notes)

“I couldn’t be more excited to work with anybody. I think she is one of the most talented people out there and I love every single thing she has done. She’s truly a remarkable actress. When you actually get in a scene with her, you realize that your understanding of how good she is was off by huge leaps of mounts, because she is so much better. She’s so incredibly real and subtle and so perfectly in tone in every single way. It’s also sort of jarring, because you realize you have to bring your A-Game.”
–John Krasinski, co-star (Official On-Set Interview)

“Rachel McAdams is working on the movie I’m working on now and I’ve seen her in like every movie. I have to see her this week so I hope she doesn’t ever see this [online interview], because I’m nervous around her, because I think she’s great.”
–Emma Stone, co-star (Malone’s Movie Minute)

Critical Reception

“McAdams, meanwhile, plays likely the strongest, most rounded female character Crowe has ever written, a woman suddenly face to face with the life she has and the one she might have had, and the actress brings a grounded, unforced earthiness to the role that is a joy to watch.”
–Mark Olsen (Los Angeles Times)

“There are some moments, most of them thanks to McAdams. She can make truth out of contrivance, often nonverbally, dramatizing contradictory impulses within a single moment. I found myself leaning into a kitchen scene between McAdams and Cooper; in the space of a few seconds, the actress activates her character’s full array of concerns and regrets and conflicted feelings.”
–Michael Phillips (Chicago Tribune)

“Cooper and the naturalistic McAdams have better chemistry together, and thanks to their authentic alchemy, the audience buys into the conflicted feelings that Gilcrest and Tracy have one another. We don’t need to the flashbacks or montages to their past, as their effortlessly shared performance creates its own credible history. Crowe’s strong suit in general is Tracy’s side of the story, leavened by her non-communicative Air Force husband (played by John Krasinski) and her two kids (Jaeden Lieberher, the kid from “St. Vincent,” and Danielle Rose Russell).”
–Rodrigo Perez (Indiewire)

The movie currently holds a 19% rating at Rotten Tomatoes (Certified Fresh) and 40 score at Meta Critics