Imagine that your daughter has just graduated from high school and to celebrate, you let her and her best friend fly off to Hawaii for just under two weeks. Only they somehow managed to deceive you and instead of Honolulu, they've gone to Bangkok. Worse yet, they've met a smooth-talking man who has led them astray and they're now being held in a Thai prison after having been convicted of attempting to smuggle Heroin into Hong Kong. Welcome to Brokedown Palace.

Claire Danes (The Mod Squad, Les Miserables) and Kate Beckinsale (The Last Days of Disco) are Alice and Darlene, the two best friends. The casting is one area where Brokedown got it right. Rose McGowan (Jawbreaker) was originally going to play the role of Darlene and she just wasn't right for the role.

Bill Pullman is the American lawyer, living in Thailand and practicing law alongside his Thai wife who eventually calls the parents of the two girls and asks for money to try and fight for their release. Even after losing in court, he persists in his efforts to try to free the girls.

Warning. The following paragraph contains material that gives away major plot points. If you haven't seen this and want to be surprised, stop reading here.

Unfortunately, aside from casting, there is little else that Brokedown Palace gets right. I don't know which of the writers (Adam Fields and David Arata) has the cockroach obsession, but someone should tell them that there are other interesting insects one will come across inside cheap Bangkok hotels as well as in Thai jails and prisons. Worse yet is the uneven characters. Pullman's "Yankee Hank" is smart enough to track down a woman in Hong Kong who was connected with the drug smuggler who attempted to use Alice and Darlene as mules, smart enough to get the local DEA agent (Lou Diamond Phillips who for some reason, really reminded me of Adrian Zmed in this role) to help him, and smart enough to frighten the newly appointed Chief Justice Minister into making a deal whereby the girls will be released and pardoned in return for recanting their protests of innocence. So if he's this smart, why isn't he smart enough to either tape-record the deal, or get the Justice Minister to put something in writing. He didn't and of course the girls are betrayed. Only in the final resolution does Brokedown Palace manage anything more than routine and boring, and by then it is far too late to redeem what is ultimately a weak movie.