8/18/99
Brokedown Palace stars Claire Danes as Alice Morano, Kate Beckinsale as Darlene Davis, Bill Pullman as Henry 'Yankee Hank' Greene, Daniel Lapaine as Nick Parks, Jacqui Kimas Yon Green, Lou Diamond Phillips as Roy Knox.
Brokedown Palace starts with an attorney in Bangkok receiving an audio tape describing the plight of two young ladies in prison. We flash back to the relationship between the good girl, Darlene, and the bad girl, Alice. All their lives the influence of the bad girl has always gotten the good girl in trouble, this time is not different. The original plan is to go to Hawaii after graduation, but Alice suggests Thailand. Darlene doesn't know if her parents will let her go. Alice has the answer for that "Don't tell them, they'll never know!"
The flashback takes us to the meeting of the ladies with a very charming Aussie, Nick Parks. His charm wins them over. He suggests they meet him in Hong Kong for a one day excursion, he'll buy the tickets. Again the ladies are reluctant, but go. It is here the trouble begins. An anonymous tip to the police, gets the ladies arrested at the airport for drug trafficking. Drugs were found in a backpack. Protests claiming the drugs were planted by Nick Parks, an alias, do not save the ladies from a 33 year sentence. The rest of the film consists of the effort by the ladies to get released from the Thai prison.
The film is well acted. It could have been a "B" movie ala women in prison movies. It is not. What is missing in this film is some depth. We do not know why Henry 'Yankee Hank' Greene is in Thailand as an attorney. We don't have any idea about the Nick Parks character except for the few minutes we are presented with his charm. It's not Midnight Express either. Brokedown Palace does however, repeat what most Americans already know, that other countries have no tolerance for our youth, in fact neither do we.
I give it 3 out of 5 padded bras: