Brokedown Palace . Tucson Weekly . 08-23-99

Brokedown Palace

DIRECTED BY: Jonathan Kaplan

REVIEWED: 08-23-99

A women-in-prison film without a shower brawl or sexually harassing female guards? What's the point? Recent high-school grads Alice (Claire Danes) and Darlene (Kate Beckinsale) giggle their way through a vacation in Thailand until they're jailed for smuggling heroin. They fight over whether or not the drugs were planted, but no hair is pulled, and absolutely no head is dunked in the prison toilet. Only Lou Diamond Phillips embraces the angels-in-chains theme as exploitative, and he gives an enjoyably over-the-top performance as an ineffectual American Embassy employee. Unfortunately, he's in few scenes, and the only other actors allowed appropriate dramatic range -- some wonderfully cast cockroaches -- were passed over for dialogue.

--Polly Higgins

Full Length Reviews
Brokedown Palace
Brokedown Palace

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