Memorable, crazy movie

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

In a relentlessly grim film, Lou Diamond Phillips gives a memorable performance in a near-cameo as American officio Roy Knox. His self-mocking, bottomless cynicism would be funny in almost any other film, but here the humour only deepens the despair.(I have not read all the 189 other reviews, so his performance may have already been discussed.If so, I apologize, but short as it was, it showed a range of talent I didn't know he possessed and thought it should be noted.)

Anyone who has seen the National Geographic Channel series "Locked Up Abroad" will understand how believable this story is. However, it would have been better had it been based on a real-life arrest.The only part that fails to impress and satisfy is the facile, somewhat saccharine ending. (Another element that rang untrue for me was the girls' age. How many parents would send a couple of graduating high-school seniors to Hawaii on their own?)The performances here are uniformly excellent and the settings appear highly realistic.I loved the musical score, and the friendship between Claire Danes and Kate Bettinsale was entirely credible. The always-excellent Bill Pullman shines as a lawyer who toils on low-glamor cases in Thailand but hasn't abandoned his ideals. It is perhaps a strength of this film that the nature and responsibility for the crime remained somewhat ambiguous.This should be viewed by every young person traveling to an exotic locale. When it comes to one's bags, one can never be too careful!

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.