Brokedown Palace Review
by John Sylva (dewyngale AT aol DOT com)August 4th, 1999
Brokedown Palace by John Sylva Rating: A
http://hometown.aol.com/DeWyNGaLe/MoviePED.html
Just when you thought the teen movie craze was over, as films like Varsity Blues and She's All That stopped being released every weekend, Brokedown Palace comes around as a late summer, teen movie- sort of. Brokedown Palace features a teen friendly cast of Claire Danes, Kate Beckinsale, and Lou Diamond Phillipps, but has a premise not so teen friendly, with a plot similar to that of the 1998 film Return to Paradise and 1978's Midnight Express.
Best friends Alice (Claire Danes) and Darlene (Kate Beckinsale) are looking to take a vacation. Somewhere exotic, yet different from the same old vacations. Their destination becomes a 6 dollar a day hotel in Thailand, an eleven day vacation in which the two hope to find freedom from their everyday lives. What they find is the exact opposite. After sneaking into a first class hotel, the two meet Nick Parks (Daniel Lapaine), a friendly, suspicious guy who invites them to Hong Kong for the weekend, while he is on business. Purchasing their airline tickets? Buying them drinks? Taking them to Hong Kong? Where does the niceness end?
While waiting to board the flight to Hong Kong, Alice and Darlene are assaulted by police officers, who find heroine in Alice's bags. The two are immediately sent to a dirty prison, in which they have no freedom whatsoever. In seek of desperate help and freedom, the two contact Hank Green (Bill Pullman), an American lawyer who resides in Thailand, whom attempts to remove these two seemingly innocent teens from serving undeserved jail time. Alice and Darlene both insist that Nick Parks is involved, but no trace of such a person can be found.
Throughout the film we see both worlds of Thailand, good and bad, starting with the beautiful, busy city streets, and then the disgustingly grotesque, dark, moldy, damp prisons which resemble a concentration camp. The prison settings are amazingly realistic, letting you feel the pain, suffering, and frustration Alice and Darlene are going through, as they may very well spend the rest of their lives there. Thanks to the great acting from Danes and Beckinsale the film does what it is supposed to- make you feel and route on these two likable teens. The screenplay, which is written by David Arata, doesn't have a plot hole to be found, as every possible way to get the teens out of prison is used, and every possible way to find Nick Parks is used. Unlike many screenplays, Brokedown Palace is complete, answering any questions that might arise from the situation the two are in.
Claire Danes steals every scene she is present in, acting her character to perfection, as Alice becomes a person in the viewer's life, as you feel for her deeply as she is treated harshly in the smucky prison. Danes, who at the age of 20 is one of today's most talented, young actresses, makes a smart move with Brokedown Palace, after performing in last spring's flop, The Mod Squad. I must not be the only one realizing her great talent, as she will be working with famed director Robert Altman and Academy Award winner Jodie Foster in the coming years. After stealing the show in 1997's The Rainmaker, and doing a fine job in 1996's Romeo and Juliet, Danes proves she has the right stuff to be a leading actress in Brokedown Palace.
Kate Beckinsale, who was deprived of an Oscar nomination last spring for her 1998 film, The Last Days of Disco, gives an equally terrific performance in Brokedown Palace as she did in Disco, but her character isn't the main focus of the film, as Darlene is a static character, while Alice learns who she is and develops greatly from what you could call, the vacation from hell.
Bill Pullman's role serves as the knot that ties the plot together. Pullman's credible performance doesn't act or subtract to the film, but Brokedown Palace would have been nowhere without Hank Green.
Director Jonathan Kaplan couldn't have done a better job with Brokedown Palace, as he cleverly uses the effective setting to make you care about the outcome of the film, as the film engulfs you as to what is happening on screen, keeping you guessing and wondering until the film's final moments. After Brokedown Palace, I felt like I just watched my best friends go through a living nightmare, due to the acting, screenplay, and direction by Kaplan. The two friends act like teens act, using their language, expressions, and actions, which is the opposite of how last spring's She's All That and Varsity Blues portrayed teens. Every element of Brokedown Palace works together perfectly, creating a film that is virtually flawless. Hands down the biggest surprise of the summer.
The Bottom Line- Brokedown Palace will flop at the box office, and many kids will think its boring and/or pointless. That's not surprising, considering that's usually the definition of a four star film.
Rated PG-13 (Mature themes, language, some violence)
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