Sept. 22, 2002 - 7:30 pm
ok, the first movie of my supposed Claire Danes weekend comes at the last minute. oh well, you'll see another entry for one of her movies appearing tomorrow night. i wasn't originally interested in seeing this film at the theater, but somehow decided that it was worth watching this past week. i think at the time when it was released i thought that it would be too much of a juvenile film for me. in ways it sort of was. in others it was quite good. this is one of those movies that turned out to have really good things about it but also some big time flaws.
the story of Brokedown Palace is that a couple of girls just out of high school decide to take a short trip to Thailand. they want to celebrate their new freedom by going to the country whose name means "freedom." while they're there they get falsely arrested for smuggling narcotics out of the country and then the last portion of the film shows how they try to free themselves from prison.
this movie has excellent cinematography. that was the first thing i noticed. quite a few innovative shots. it comes from a man named Newton Thomas Sigel who also did the shooting on The Usual Suspects (1995) and quite a few other overall mediocre films. well i guess you do what you can to improve them. another thing that's good about this film is the main story. very interesting plot and good characterization of nearly everyone. the actors in this film are all perfect for their roles. so i guess great casting.
one of the big qualms i have with this movie is that it looks like it was almost altered so that teenagers would enjoy it more. i mean it already had Claire Danes in it, you didn't need to give young girls any more allowances than that. no, but they went ahead and included a really weak sappy soundtrack that didn't fit with the context of the film. i love a lot of the songs that appear in this film just because i had heard them previously (i.e. Sara MacLachlan's stuff, the Leonardo's Bride song from Australia), but they just don't fit. if the soundtrack had been more classic-sounding, it probably would've all worked out better. the other main problem is the direction in a few scenes. it's just goofy and wrong.
as far as Claire Danes' work in this film, it's really excellent. and the complexity that she brings to her character constantly keeps you thinking. i was really wondering until the end if she had the capability to actually have considered carrying out the drug transfer of her own volition. i'm still not even sure. wonderful job though. i just wish that a few things had been improved on the film. maybe by a director with a little more control? i can't help feeling like someone else stepped in at the last minute and made him change some things. since the rest of it's so good, it just seems like it was altered after the fact. i guess i can't really explain it any better than that.