It's hard to say what in "Brokedown Palace" is more stupid — the actions of the main characters or the script, which doesn't give audiences any credit for intelligence.
As you might have guessed from the trailers and television ads, this heavy-handed, cliche-filled drama would like to draw comparisons to "Midnight Express." But it actually has more in common with last year's similarly inane drama, "Return to Paradise." And some music-video direction flourishes, accompanied by popular music, don't just create atmosphere — they ensure that this will be little more than "Midnight Express Lite."
Flashy camera work and beautiful location photography can't conceal the fact that this movie is lacking in subtlety and smarts. And if not for a terrific supporting turn by Bill Pullman, the movie would be completely insufferable.
But perhaps what's most surprising about "Brokedown Palace" is that it features bad performances by actresses Claire Danes and Kate Beckinsale, who usually shine even with the most shoddy material.
The two play Alice Marano and Darlene Davis, respectively, a pair of recent high school graduates whose dream vacation to Thailand turns to disaster. There, both the carefree Alice and the more straitlaced Darlene find themselves drawn to the same man, Nick Parks (David Lapaine), a charismatic Aussie who persuades them to take a brief side trip to Hong Kong.
However, as they are getting ready to board the plane, the young women are stopped by customs officials, who find several kilos of heroin in Alice's backpack. Despite professing their innocence, the girls are arrested and thrown into jail.
Needless to say, they're sentenced to lengthy prison terms after an in-name-only "trial," and as the two longtime friends start to turn on one another, they find one last hope in the person of "Yankee Hank" Greene (Pullman), an American expatriate lawyer who specializes in such cases.
Frankly, the film only picks up interest in the second half, when Pullman's character finally comes on the scene. The leisurely pacing (which makes the movie feel more like 155 minutes in length instead of 95) certainly doesn't help; nor does screenwriter David Arata's cornball dialogue.
Of course, the story is also completely superficial, as is Jonathan Kaplan's style-over-substance direction. And again, the usually solid Danes and Beckinsale seem particularly uninspired. But who can really blame them?
"Brokedown Palace" is rated PG-13 for profanity, a violent beating, simulated drug use (marijuana), use of crude slang terms and vulgar gestures and brief female nudity.