Sadly Over-hyped

Don't listen to the negative reviews

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Americans Alice and Darlene decide to take a trip to Bangkok to celebrate their high-school graduation, they are naïve when befriended by a charming Australian who convinces them to join him for a weekend trip to Hong Kong. At the airport they are busted, unjustly arrested, convicted and sent to prison for 33 years for smuggling heroin in Thailand.This movie, as well as being disturbing was visually stunning and also comes with a great soundtrack. Claire Danes is awesome, giving a near perfect performance in her role as the more headstrong of the two girls, (damn can she act) and the ending is absolutely haunting, I'm still thinking about it now days later. 07.13

Two carefree teenage girls are jailed in Thailand for allegedly smuggling Heroin while on vacation.It has become the stuff of reality nightmares, seemingly every year there is the reports of foreigners abroad caught smuggling drugs. Quite often the innocence is starkly protested, claims of being duped or threatened into being drug mules through customs borders. Brokedown Palace is an interpretation of one such instance.There's a viable complaint about the film that it condenses the harsh realities of the surroundings, this "Brokedown Palace" is not portrayed as the dirty hell holes they so often are in reality. This initially gives the film a sort of false feel, that we are being fed a watered down Hollywood production of something very serious.However, looking deeper into the picture as a character piece, Jonathan Kaplan's film beats a mighty heart and has brain staying power as well. Claire Danes and Kate Beckinsale (both superb) are the two friends at the centre of this mystery. Story is more concerned with how their friendship copes under the trying circumstances. Through the initial shock of their situation, to the faux trial, the interactions with others and the relationship they have with their American lawyer, Hank the Yank (Bill Pullman). There's also the not small matter that one of the girls might actually be guilty as charged? Which really gives the piece an intriguing kick.Unfortunately it falls down in other areas. How come the girls are perfectly coiffured? Quite often splendidly attired in cosmetics? As Kaplan strains for authenticity in human interactions, he loses credibility elsewhere because these two girls look like actors who have had a "don't make me look ugly" clause inserted into their contracts. Ultimately when the story is dialled into the two girls and their friendship, Brokedown Palace hits the heights required, elsewhere it's a disappointment and it's not hard to understand why the two lead actresses practically disowned the film shortly after their publicity commitments were over. 6/10

Brokedown Palace seems to be a hybrid between a gal-pal movie and a women's prison film. This odd combination does not work for either of these genres.This film tries to sell the idea that the two female leads , Alice (Danes) and Darlene (Beckinsale), are inseparable friends since childhood. It is a good thing that they go to such lengths to point this out because you couldn't tell that from either the screenplay or the performances of either Danes or Beckinsale.The story about the foreign imprisonment of the two girls from Ohio is difficult to believe. This creates a fundamental problem with Brokedown Palace since this is the centerpiece of the film. I do not know whether this plot point was based on any historical event but it appears to be entirely fictional.The depiction of the Thai judicial system is also problematic. While there are advantages to the U.S. judicial system relative to those in some foreign countries the treatment here seems self-serving and even borders on propaganda.On the positive side, Brokedown Palace delivers some compelling cinematography, some good musical accompaniment and some compelling scenes delivered by a solid cast.

Brokedown Palace is the title of this film and euphemistic description of the prison that two young American women find themselves in after being caught in Thailand with a couple of kilos of heroin. Not the vacation getaway that they plan.As it turns out I was in Thailand that same year and in the Phillipines where this movie was actually filmed as part of an Asian whirlwind tour I had planned for myself. I certainly didn't see that seamy side of Bangkok or Manila for that matter. But you know you're in a different culture and mindset even in the places that cater to American tourists.Claire Danes and Kate Beckinsale are a couple of teens from small town Ohio ready to go to college in the fall and lifetime friends about to be separated. While in Hawaii and away from their parents and the mores of middle America, the two decide to go off on a cheap jaunt to Thailand for an experience.While there they fall into the hands of a smooth talking Aussie hustler who sets them up beautifully to take a fall for drug smuggling. It's a story told time and again, the concept of innocent until proved guilty is one that only applies in the Anglo-American world. And prison in a third world country makes our penal system look like country clubs.Danes and Beckinsale do beautifully as these innocents caught up in a world they're not prepared for. Danes maybe more so because her family is less affluent than Beckinsale's.Bill Pullman plays their American attorney in practice in Bangkok with his Thai wife and Lou Diamond Phillips is a DEA agent more concerned with the 'big picture' as opposed to these two young women and their plight. But the best performance in the film for me is Tom Amandes as Beckinsale's father. It's established early on that Danes is the more adventurous of the two and Beckinsale probably just tagged along in their various endeavors. In any event the best scene for me in the film is when after Amandes visits Beckinsale and reassures her he's doing everything possible is when he asks to see Danes. He makes it very plain that she led his little sugarplum down the garden path and he hopes she rots there forever.The narrowness of the streets is the same in Manila as in Bangkok, they weren't designed for automobile traffic. But one thing that the Phillipines didn't have and probably 20th Century Fox couldn't bring in was the sight of elephants and cape buffalo wandering through the streets of Bangkok. That takes a bit of getting used to let me tell you. Still shooting in Thailand was out of the question given the way Thailand is portrayed. The film should serve as a warning to those contemplating being a tourist in a third world country.