Brokedown Palace (DVD, 2000)

This is one of Claire Danes best performances for me. Also stars Kate Beckinsale (before you and I both knew who she was), and Bill Pullman. Two girls travel to Thailand for a good time after graduation. Though the girls are bestfriends, we quickly see that their relationship isn't as perfect as it seems. Things really get complicated when they meet up with a mysterious American man with a few secrets of his own. A story of friendship, drugs, sacrifice and cockroches, with a killer ending, not the movie to miss.

This is a 5-star film! It could have easily come off as cheesy and exploitative, but the casting of Claire Danes and Kate Beckinsale is perfect. They express real emotion, they were the right age at the time to convincingly play recent high school graduates, and they actually look un-glamorous while in a Thai prison. The prison scenes are realistic. No lesbian shower scenes or over-the-top sadism, just poor food, poor sanitation, overcrowding, and the hopelessness of knowing you are sentenced to life for a crime that, in the United States, would get you maybe five years. The veneer of civilization --- there are courts, lawyers, and the American Embassy --- makes it all the more grueling, because unlike an action movie where you can break out of prison and run, here there is the illusion that you can go through proper channels and triumph. But red tape proves more frustrating than physical torture. Highly recommended.

Get to see Kate & Claire at a young age in a very scary tale. See as they get caught in a drug smuggle by accident,then try to get out of Asia to a normal life once again. Shades of Midnight Express only with two stunners.

I bought this movie after seeing it at a friend's house. It is a profound look at the reality of straying from the tourist path when in a country that does not value freedom, impartial justice, or the rights of an individual. It is a gut-wrenching reminder that much of the world operates fundamentally different than America, and that just being an American does not mean you get to take those rights with you abroad!

The movie is well-written, thoroughly engrossing, well-acted, and very genuine. Even though what is unfolding is dreadful you can't turn away from it, it draws you in to watch it to the very end. Not a movie for the faint of heart!

This is a great movie. Two friends going on a trip together. But it all turns sour when they get into trouble. Its sad to see two friends fall for the same man. Then the man turns on them both. I like it because it has a good storyline.