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

I had heard about this movie but had never seen it until this week when I found it on Netflix streaming movies. I didn't think that much of Claire Danes back in the 1999 time frame, but she was so good as Temple Grandin in the movie of the same name, I approached this one with a fresh perspective. She really is a good actress and already was when this was filmed in 1998, when she was still a teenager.The story immediately reminded me of an actual jury trial I was involved with in the 1990s, as jury foreman. In a very similar real-life case two teenage girls were caught at the airport with suitcases containing drugs, and they claimed a mysterious man had bought their tickets and asked them to each carry a suitcase onto the plane for him. The man never was found.Claire Danes is Alice and her best friend is Kate Beckinsale (actually 25) Darlene. They had known each other since they were babies crawling towards each other in adjacent yards, and now they have just finished high school together. They are supposed to be going to Hawaii for a week, but on a whim Alice convinces Kate to go to Thailand instead. Their parents don't know.This is a familiar theme in movies, the more recent "Taken" with Liam Neeson also plays on the theme of young daughters not telling the truth about their plans for travel abroad.Naive, the girls meet an Australian man who invites them to Hong Kong for a couple of days, they go, and on the way back to Thailand are caught at the airport with a few kilos of drugs in the carry-on bags. They are put in jail, they get sentenced to 33 years. It looks bleak.One of them gets a tape recording of her story to Bill Pullman as American lawyer Hank Greene, married to a Thai woman, also a lawyer. Pullman plays almost the same character as Daryl Zero in "The Zero Effect", a 1998 movie. But here his motivation is simply the fee, and he gets the girls to have their parents send him $15,000. Not all goes well, when he thinks he has a deal to free the girls, it backfires and they appear doomed. It is a heartbreaking story, but very realistic as this sort of think can happen, and probably does more often than we realize. It took me 15 years but I am glad I finally saw it.SPOILERS: When Hank Greene finally unraveled the whole story, it is one of corruption. The Australian was a known drug smuggler, and on that particular flight had 8 young women carrying drugs for him. As his "fee" he reported Alice and Darlene, so the cops could find their drugs and arrest them, as a diversion of sorts to assure the other 6 went through. The cops knew about this, and being able to arrest the two girls was their compensation for looking the other way. In the end Greene was not able to get the girls off, but Alice did the right thing in her own eyes, she pleaded to the judge that it was all her idea, Darlene was completely innocent, she should go home and Alice would serve a term for both of them. And that is how the movie ends, with Darlene being freed and Alice as a convict perhaps for the rest of her life.

Brokedown Palace (1999)Who wouldn't have some curiosity and tension about two pretty young women (played by pretty young actresses, anyway), trapped in a Thai prison system for drug smuggling? But boy is this a clunky construction for a movie. First of all, the women are stupid. They admit to being stupid, but they are selfish and frivolous and you really couldn't care less if they went to jail. On the other hand, you can picture being in a foreign country and losing track of things a little and getting victimized and so you do, after all, get involved and hope for justice.There is (sometimes) a tense progression of increasingly discouraging events, and the prison system is a tough place. And the sets and filming are really great. If only the writing was remotely convincing and smart. It's not. Even the direction is painful, emphasizing not the facts or some sense of possible realism, but an armchair version of what this kind of scenario might mean to two relatively innocent girls is just a little embarrassing. The director (Jonathan Kaplan) is the same one who missed a huge opportunity with some amazing material filming In Cold Blood, and he is, understandably, most known for television, which takes a different kind of sensibility. And it's also very slow, taking a few turns or progressions and stretching a two hour movie out of it.It's a tough ride if you take it at face value. And it's a shame, because there is a Midnight Express hidden in here somewhere. There are some really gorgeous moments, aside from the travelogue stuff, and I think Claire Danes, at least, is a good actress. Just an example of how many elements it takes to align and get a great movie.

Where should I begin with how much I cherish and praise this absolute masterpiece? Let me start off with how I came upon it; I remember it perfectly. I was staying the night at my sister's house one night, and it was after she and my nephew had fallen asleep that I had watched a few films already and still really had nothing better to do, but was not going to sleep any time soon. I was sorting through her DVD collection, searching for films I had not seen before, and luckily enough stumbled onto this film. I had never heard of it, and though this might sound crazy, I felt drawn to the film. I mean, I really loved the cover, and I really love a lot of Asian themed films, and so I read the brief description on the back of the case and decided it sounded decent enough to pass the time. Since it had Claire Danes, who I love in every movie she has been in, except maybe Romeo + Juliet which I had not seen at the time, I decided it would be entertaining. Giving this movie a chance was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life, and I am not exaggerating. It is simply perfect, flawless, in my opinion, in every way possible and fully deserves any positive recognition it receives, plus all the other recognition it should have received and should be receiving now.First of all, it is executed so much better than any other film I have ever seen, and was so beautifully crafted and put together with perfect performances and poignancy that it makes my head spin. I was so entranced in the story and I am amazed at how perfect I believe this movie to be. It is sheer brilliance from beginning to end. It has the perfect atmosphere of intensity and brilliance that keeps me entranced in it from the get-go. The performances are perfect. Claire Danes does wonderfully as Alice, and her splendid portrayal was perfect with enough sincerity and an amazing climax scene that goes down as my favorite scene in cinema history. Kate Beckinsale is perfect, and her character, while annoying some reviewers, did not annoy me one bit. Bill Pullman is perfect, and I have never really cared for him at all. Jacqueline Kim is perfect. Lou Diamond Phillips is perfect. I could list the entire cast, but I am sure you get the point I am trying to prove by now.It has an excellent plot with authenticity and pain, rending the viewer helpless to submit to every kind of emotion they intend you to submit to. I love how it unfolds; them wanting to have a more memorable vacation by going somewhere exotic, meeting and becoming infatuated with Nick Parks or "Skip", and then how they are thrown in jail for heroin that neither of them claims to know how it got into their luggage, and their lives are slowly turned upside down on a vacation that was supposed to be their last great time together. It is so achingly beautiful. I love the whole backstory at the beginning, and it immediately clicks with me and I know these two girls' lives and traits, which is why I care for them so much throughout the entire remainder of the film. It inspires sympathy in the utmost manner for them. Nothing is superficial or played out about it, because the way it is told is like everything is fresh and new to our senses. It is grotesque without being violent, it is heartbreaking without being depressing, and all the material you think is irrelevant is revealed as being important pieces of the puzzle little by little.All the troubles and faults that go on in the prison make me pull my hair out and grit my teeth. The cruel inmate that causes Alice to be punished, the failed escape, the cockroach in Darlene's ear. Those poor girls; I wish I could help them. It is not as violent as it could be, but it did not need to be to berelevant. I know this is sometimes compared to A Midnight Express and Return to Paradise, and a few other drug-smuggling in foreign regions films, but I can assure you, in my honest opinion, none compare to the brilliant execution and poignancy of this magnificent work of art. The soundtrack is even perfect as well. I love "Rock the Casbah", "Silence", "Damaged", "Party" and then "Deliver Me" is positively beautiful, and a perfect song choice to an absolutely wonderful ending, which brings me to my next appraise. I am baffled by the movies last minutes. The best climax/ending in cinematic history, and the most effective, in my honest opinion. The movie's ending made me cry my eyes out, but the song just added on to the tears. There is the cliffhanger that just makes this movie even more amazing. You never know if Alice did it or if she didn't, you just know she did what she had to do set her friend free in the end, and after all, that's all the matters, is it not? All of this does not even begin to explain how perfect I think it is. It is extremely underrated, not winning one award and is hardly conversed about in today's film society, and a hidden gem for anyone who has seen it and loved it. It is a beautiful, perfect movie with a powerful message and incredible entertainment value. It has been my favorite movie for awhile now, and I believe that I might not find another movie that I love as much as it anytime soon.I know my comment may be a little cheesy, but I mean every word... Two thumbs way up!