Brokedown Palace
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| Brokedown Palace | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Jonathan Kaplan |
| Produced by | Adam Fields |
| Written by | Adam Fields, David Arata |
| Starring | Claire Danes, Kate Beckinsale, Bill Pullman |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | 13 August 1999 |
| Running time | 100 min |
| Language | English, Thai |
| IMDb profile | |
Brokedown Palace is an American film directed by Jonathan Kaplan, and starring Claire Danes and Kate Beckinsale. It deals with two American friends imprisoned in Thailand for drug smuggling.
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[edit] Taglines
They were willing to go anywhere for the perfect summer. Until a stranger changed everything.
It all comes down to redemption.
How far would you go to save who you love.
[edit] Plot
Lifelong best friends Alice Marano (Danes) and Darlene Davis (Beckinsale) are like night and day. Alice is bold and daring, while Darlene is more quiet and reserved. The future looks bright for both of them as they graduate high school and make plans to attend college in the fall.
Unbeknownst to their parents, they change their pre-college summer vacation destination from Hawaii to Thailand at Alice's insistence. Alice claims that the American dollar is much stronger overseas and they should take advantage of the opportunity. While there, they meet a captivating Australian man, Nick Parks (Daniel Lapaine), who befriends them and invites them along with him to Hong Kong. However, the girls are found with large amounts of heroin at Bangkok International Airport while preparing to board their plane, and are quickly taken into custody for drug smuggling. Darlene is tricked into signing a confession in a foreign language she does not understand.
The story takes an abrupt turn as the girls find themselves sentenced to lengthy terms (33 years, plus fifteen for an escape attempt) in a grim Thai women's prison, called the Brokedown Palace by its inmates. It is also implied that there is no parole system in Thailand, and thus no chance of early release. During the first several months of their incarceration, the girls accuse each other of attempting to smuggle the heroin, possibly at the behest of Parks. While Alice and Darlene's friendship falls apart, the facts surrounding what really happened become increasingly muddled and distorted by corrupt Thai politicians, and the girls become less and less likely to be found innocent and released. They eventually turn to Hank "Hank the Yank" Greene (Pullman), an American attorney living in Thailand, in hopes that he can free them.
At first, Greene is hesitant to represent the girls because they're found to not have been truthful with him in the beginning concerning their stay in Thailand. Namely, their stay in a luxury hotel without paying. The girls eventually come clean about their attempts to 'live dangerously' in their first venture far from home, and Hank agrees to continue representing them, though his efforts are in vain as he is beaten back by the Thai legal system at every turn.
Greene, though no longer getting paid, eventually grows fond of the girls and takes a more personal interest in their case. Trying a different tactic, he meets with prosecutor Roy Knox (Phillips), who has the influence to commute their sentence. Though Knox admits that the girls were probably duped, someone has to go to jail for their crime, and as long as no Nick Parks (obviously an alias) can be produced to clear the girls, they will finish out the remainder of their sentences.
Alice - by this time having accepted her responsibility for their predicament and unable to bear the sight of her best friend suffering in prison any longer - proposes a deal with the King of Thailand (by Greene's suggestion) to serve both girls' sentences in exchange for Darlene's release. The judge agrees to this deal, and the film ends with the girls' friendship restored. Darlene bids Alice farewell, as she returns to the States. Darlene promises Alice that she will not stop trying to get her released from prison. Hank, though no longer directly involved with the case, continues studying precedents in hopes of finding one that will clear Alice's name once and for all.
Because it presents a critical view of the Thai legal system, Brokedown Palace was filmed mostly in the Philippines. However some panoramas and views were filmed in Bangkok.
[edit] Cast
- Claire Danes – Alice Marano
- Kate Beckinsale – Darlene Davis
- Bill Pullman – 'Yankee' Hank Greene
- Jacqueline Kim – Yon Greene
- Lou Diamond Phillips – Roy Knox
- Daniel Lapaine – Nick Parks
- Tom Amandes – Doug Davis
[edit] Similarities to other films
The movie Return to Paradise was released a year before Brokedown Palace, and is noted for being similar, in that it also concerns a young American trapped in a Southeast Asian legal system, and difficult choices that must be made by that traveler's traveling companions.
The Australian mini-series aired: Nov 05 - Dec 10, 1989, "Bangkok Hilton" is the story of a young woman who goes in search of the father she has never known. Her search takes her from Australia to England and then on to Bangkok. There she meets up with a charming young man, Arkie Regan, who plants drugs in her luggage and leaves her to her fate when the authorities find them during a routine search at the airport. Following her imprisonment in the notorious Bangkok Hilton prison she awaits the decision of the authorities on whether she should face the death penalty.
