Review – Brokedown Palace

They should have called this one Midnight Express 2: The Women. Though it lacks most of the brutality and honesty of the original, the parallels between the two (young Americans accused of smuggling drugs and imprisoned by evil, oppressive foreign regimes) are inescapable. Though I have no particular yen to see torment inflicted on either Clare Daines or Kate Beckinsale, I wish this had been followed a bit more closely in its predecessor’s footsteps and more honestly portrayed conditions in Thai jails. Instead about the worst that can be said about the “inhuman conditions” are that the hairdos are bad and the food isn’t the tastiest. So the whole experience is more of a mild bummer than a genuine injustice. On the other hand, my hat’s off to the filmmakers for having the courage to leave the question of guilt (or even the exact nature of the crime) ambiguous throughout. Mildly amusing