(Some Spoilers) It's when the workaholic mom and paralegal Emma Burke, Virgina Medsen, got the sad news that her former nanny and surrogate mother Lily, Itsiao ling Tang, had passed away from ovarian cancer her life made a sudden U-turn. Receiving Lily's ashes with the instructions to have them scattered in her native island of Kauai Emma dropped everything, her job her family and her weekly workouts at the local gym, and took the first flight out of Boston's Logan Airport on a 12,000 mile trip to the island to fulfill Lily's wishes.
Arriving at Kauai Emma meets local beach bum scuba diver and flower farmer the tall handsome and strapping Kala, Jason Momoa, who just happens to be Lily's sister Kehau's, Kieu Chinh, nephew to show her around the island and meet the family. It's through both Kala, whom Emma falls in love with, and Kehau that Emma gets to meet the Brooklynese sounding native born Julia, Lanie Kazan, who does all the legal and paper work for them. It soon becomes apparent that the very unsociable Jula has a story to tell Emma but she's isn't quite opening up to her. It's Kehau who breaks the ice by giving Emma the lowdown to who exactly Julia is and what she means to her! Which blows the shocked down to her socks Emma's mind! There's also the fact that the farmland that Kehau owns where she both grows and sells her flowers is about to be bought up by a group of greedy land developers! It's now up to Emma to find a loopholed in the local law that would prevent them from buying up the land and turning it into a housing development: Which would be someone being buried on the land which would have it declared by the local courts as secret ground that can't be tampered with in that it would disturb the dead! This problem would have been easily solved if Lily instead of having herself cremated after death would have opted to have herself buried there instead!
Meanwile back in Boston things are getting out of hand in the Burke family household with Poppa Mike, Andrew McFarland, having his hands full with his free spirited 15 year old daughter Jamie, Brook Harmon, hanging out all day and night with her boyfriend and not doing her homework. As for Jamie's kid brother Neil Burke, played by James Dean?, he's confused in what he wants to be when he grows up, a doctor a lawyer an Indian chief, and needs Emma's guidance to set him straight on course before he ends up living in fantasy land forever!
***SPOILERS**** It's in the end that Emma finds the real reason for Lily having her travel to Kauai and to scatter her ashes there. It was something that Lily wanted to tell Emma all her life but didn't quite have the nerve to do it. It was also to unite Emma with her true and biological mother whom she was told was dead all these years. And thus make up for all the time she missed out in not being with her! During a tropical downpour with Emma Neil Jamie and the what looks like the barley 25 year old Kala's 15 year old son Billy(Michael Wilder), who ended up slipping off a boulder and cracking his skull, hiding in a cave to escape from the rain it's discovered that somebody back before recorded history, an Hawaiian cave man?,is buried there! Thus saving Kala & Keau's flower farm in that it made the land, according to ancient Kauai laws and customs, exempted from being tampered with: Like building a housing development on it!
P.S Touching final scene with Rev.Stewart played by Garry Day, who's a dead ringer for the late great professional wrestler Captain Lou Albano, giving the eulogy for Lily, who in death brought everyone in the film together, as her ashes were scattered into the sea to the music of the Hawaiian version of "Somewhere over the Rainbow".
Arriving at Kauai Emma meets local beach bum scuba diver and flower farmer the tall handsome and strapping Kala, Jason Momoa, who just happens to be Lily's sister Kehau's, Kieu Chinh, nephew to show her around the island and meet the family. It's through both Kala, whom Emma falls in love with, and Kehau that Emma gets to meet the Brooklynese sounding native born Julia, Lanie Kazan, who does all the legal and paper work for them. It soon becomes apparent that the very unsociable Jula has a story to tell Emma but she's isn't quite opening up to her. It's Kehau who breaks the ice by giving Emma the lowdown to who exactly Julia is and what she means to her! Which blows the shocked down to her socks Emma's mind! There's also the fact that the farmland that Kehau owns where she both grows and sells her flowers is about to be bought up by a group of greedy land developers! It's now up to Emma to find a loopholed in the local law that would prevent them from buying up the land and turning it into a housing development: Which would be someone being buried on the land which would have it declared by the local courts as secret ground that can't be tampered with in that it would disturb the dead! This problem would have been easily solved if Lily instead of having herself cremated after death would have opted to have herself buried there instead!
Meanwile back in Boston things are getting out of hand in the Burke family household with Poppa Mike, Andrew McFarland, having his hands full with his free spirited 15 year old daughter Jamie, Brook Harmon, hanging out all day and night with her boyfriend and not doing her homework. As for Jamie's kid brother Neil Burke, played by James Dean?, he's confused in what he wants to be when he grows up, a doctor a lawyer an Indian chief, and needs Emma's guidance to set him straight on course before he ends up living in fantasy land forever!
***SPOILERS**** It's in the end that Emma finds the real reason for Lily having her travel to Kauai and to scatter her ashes there. It was something that Lily wanted to tell Emma all her life but didn't quite have the nerve to do it. It was also to unite Emma with her true and biological mother whom she was told was dead all these years. And thus make up for all the time she missed out in not being with her! During a tropical downpour with Emma Neil Jamie and the what looks like the barley 25 year old Kala's 15 year old son Billy(Michael Wilder), who ended up slipping off a boulder and cracking his skull, hiding in a cave to escape from the rain it's discovered that somebody back before recorded history, an Hawaiian cave man?,is buried there! Thus saving Kala & Keau's flower farm in that it made the land, according to ancient Kauai laws and customs, exempted from being tampered with: Like building a housing development on it!
P.S Touching final scene with Rev.Stewart played by Garry Day, who's a dead ringer for the late great professional wrestler Captain Lou Albano, giving the eulogy for Lily, who in death brought everyone in the film together, as her ashes were scattered into the sea to the music of the Hawaiian version of "Somewhere over the Rainbow".