Brokedown Palace

By RICHARD CORLISS

High school grads Alice (Claire Danes) and Darlene (Kate Beckinsale) lark off to Thailand, where they get framed on a heroin rap. The dank, formulaic script allows few of the moral ambiguities of 1998's Return to Paradise (there the country was Malaysia, and the American prisoner sort of guilty). The tale also has little of the pulpy juice of the B-movies Kaplan made in the '70s. The only guilty pleasure is watching Danes' wildly noble emoting. Her tears are as strong as a porn queen's orgasm.

--By Richard Corliss