Our Movie

Some friends have special movies that remind them of each other, or the friendship they have. Now, everyone has a movie that they saw with some friend, and therefore it reminds them of that. But most girls have a movie that shows their friendship this movie is one of two; either Beaches or Steel Magnolias. For Bea and I that movie is Brokedown Palace. That’s right, the 1999, Claire Danes drama about girls who get scammed on the way to Hong Kong and wind up in a Thai prison.

Bea and I went to see this movie when it first came out because of our insane Claire Danes obsession (we were teens when My So Called Life came out and was then cancelled, what can I say?). I drove us to the theater in the mid-afternoon because even as a teen Bea was an old lady about saving money and we settled in. In case you have never seen this movie let me do a quick recap:
Alice and Darlene (the aforementioned Claire Danes and a pre-Underworld Kate Beckinsale), best friends, decide to take a trip to Thailand to celebrate high-school graduation. While there, they are befriended by charming Australian rogue Nick Parks. Nick convinces them to take a weekend side trip to Hong Kong, but at the airport, they are busted for smuggling drugs. They are convicted in a show trial and sentenced to 33 years; in desperation, they contact Yankee Hank, an American lawyer based in Thailand who has been reported to be helpful if you've got the cash. Any who the last scene of the movie Alice and Darlene plea to the court for their freedom and of course are denied, so Alice (who now speaks fluent Thai) bargains with the court, without Darlene’s knowledge (she doesn’t speak Thai) to let Darlene go free and Alice will serve willingly. OF course the court says “chây” (fine) and Darlene screams as they drag Alice off and remove her own chains. At this point Bea and I are sobbing, letting the popcorn fall to the floor and holding hands in that non-gay way that girls do.

As we’re driving home and getting over our “zub zubs” I turn off the radio and we sit in silence for a few moments and say simultaneously “I would so not do that for you” and laugh hysterically.

See, she’s my BFF for a reason.