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75The heart of the film is in the performances of Danes and Beckinsale after they're sent to prison.
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75Brokedown Palace does have some plot implausibilities but Kaplan, manages to turn some hashed story lines into something substantial and emotionally affecting.
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70Brokedown Palace is good enough so that you wish it were better.
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70The plotting could use some finessing, but fine acting makes this film worthwhile.
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70It's close to a no-win situation dramatically, culturally and politically, and Kaplan deals with it plausibly enough by concentrating on the performances and the interior conflicts they reveal.
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It's strangely enjoyable to see her(Danes) and Beckinsale busted on a bogus heroin-smuggling rap and thrown in the slammer with bad 'dos and no makeup.
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60This is not a fantastic movie. But there's more to it than just an MTV-slickified "Midnight Express" starring two young, photogenic stars.
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50The movie, directed by veteran Jonathan Kaplan, has enough in common with such American-in-foreign-jail movies as "Midnight Express" and the recent "Return to Paradise" to make you wonder why it ever got made.
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50The specifics of their predicament are well handled -- being thrown in a Third World prison may be every tourist's nightmare -- even if the movie eventually goes soft and squishy.
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50Its finest moments come in sequences such as Alice and Darlene's prison break and the girls' final wrenching plea for freedom.
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50We're stuck with contrived plot contortions, dull interpersonal interaction, and unconvincing dialogue.
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50This is the kind of picture that is faux subtle when it should be bold, and really ham-handed when it should be delicate.
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50Overall it's a colorful, diverting cautionary tale.
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50The penalties for drug trafficking in Thailand are very, very stiff. If there were any justice in the world, the penalties for saddling fine actors with terrible dialogue would be even stiffer.
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40Just another lurid, contrived, xenophobic tale about Americans trapped in hideous foreign prisons.
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40Director Jonathan Kaplan clearly has a feel for the material, but he's at the mercy of a pedestrian script by David Arata and producer Adam Fields.
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30An exploitation flick, but without the thrills or cleavage.
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30The once-reliable Danes is a particular detriment, but it's really hard to care whether either character escapes from what looks like a really unappealing summer camp.
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30Part cautionary tale, part moral-uplift saga, Brokedown Palace is as dull as it's absurd.
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20The best thing about a movie like this is I never have to see it again.
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20Kaplan's lustily awful film is to be avoided if at all possible, and if not, well, don't say I didn't warn you.