MovieChat Forums > Brokedown Palace (1999) Discussion > Why ALICE did it... (spoilers, of course...

Why ALICE did it... (spoilers, of course)

posted 16 years ago by melanieknaack
27 replies | jump to latest

Okay, obviously this is just my opinion, and yes I've read the article where the writer says that the story "transcends guilt or innocence".

Personally, I believe that Alice did it.

Why?

First of all, we know that only the guilty sleep, right? That's interrogation-scene rule #1. (My father in law, a retired cop, says that it is actually very very true to life.) Alice sleeps in the interrogation room. Darlene does not sleep while in the cell.

But let's back up. In the hotel, when they are getting into their cab (I know, a lot of people have the cab-trunk-switcheroo theory), Alice gives an uncomfortable look back toward the trunk when she is no longer holding the bag. Of course, the obvious questions are how could she not notice all that extra weight & what was she doing in the hotel room for so long while she claimed to be "washing her hair"?

But, I think more than anything, if you look at the movie very mechanically, the fact that she sleeps in the interrogation room is THE dead giveaway. I mean, that is WHY they show that in movies. Its foreshadowing. If you know anything about crime movies, you know that sleeping means you are guilty.

Next time you watch Law & Order or something, see if I'm wrong about the sleeping thing. :)

But anyway, I think that, although the writers didn't want to directly implicate one character or another, they placed a little 'tell' in there for those of us who just HAVE to know.

[–] phoenixashes33 14 years ago

I don't know how many times I've seen this movie, but it's been A LOT.
There are subtleties throughout the entire film that could be interpreted as exposing the guilty party. However this goes back and forth, like a tennis match. I'm sure the director did that intentionally so the moral of the film is correctly executed.

If you watch Claire Danes' subtle facial expressions during certain scene's and dialogue, you can interpret them to mean that her character knows more about what is going on than she has previously led on (although I can't recall which parts exactly). Her facial expressions are meticulous in this respect.

It doesn't matter who is guilty, and it's clear that it's never meant to be known for sure. Knowing the truth would take away from the emotion and significance of the entire story altogether. It's tragic however you look at it.

[–] agnieszka01 14 years ago

I like your theories, Melanie. I think the intention of the director was to deliberately make her guilt or innocence ambiguous so people can interpret the situation as they see fit. I watched the movie assuming Alice was innocent, and didn't consider until she actually confessed that she might have actually done it, which of course changed the nature of all the previous events in hindsight. Now that I think of it, here are a couple other points that indicate her possible guilt:

When Alice was on the phone with her father, she tearfully asked him if he thought she had done it. He basically said he'll love her either way, a very noncommittal response. She didn't take this opportunity to profess her innocence. Even while watching, I was thinking, "why doesn't she just tell him she didn't do it?" Maybe she just couldn't bring herself to lie to her father; it did seem like a moment of honesty for her.

Also, kind of in relation to "the guilty never sleep" theory, Angela did seem to resign herself early on to the idea that she would be imprisoned long-term; making friends, smoking p*t to zone out, just making the best of her life in the place. Perhaps in her heart she knew that it was her fault they were there so she almost deserved to be where she was. I imagine prison life would be much more stressful for someone falsely imprisoned.

[–] marbleann 14 years ago

All i have to say is the fact 2 high school graduates want to go to Thailand is very suspicious. And they knew it was a dangerous place to go because one did not even tell her father. Heck want someplace exciting, different go to the Soviet Union. Go to Egypt. Go to The Seychelles Island but stay the heck out of Thailand. I believe that someone heard there was good money to made there and that is why they went in the first place. So they both lost me in the very beginning of the movie. Oh BTW my father was a NYPD Homicide Detective 1st Grade and he told me people are all different and it is even hard to tell when people are lying. Also people get excited when they are arrested and many of times their adrenalin level crashes and they are very tired during interrogations. Also people do not get questioned by cops for a while. You just might be tried.

[–] afvp 14 years ago

Why did her confession changed the nature of the previous events? with confession we keep not knowing what truly happened, we just see a great friendship.

Oh and c'mon... When she was on the phone with her father she cried because she realized no one belived in her that why she didn't even bother to say anything. She knew her reputation, she had that "conversation" with darlene's father and her own father didn't believed in her... that's pretty hard and that is way when hank tells her that he knows they didn't do it, that he believes in her she cries again and ends up doing the best thing for her friend who has a life ahead of her and a loving family.

About the sleep theory... when i'm worried about something ou with a "guilty conscious" i can't sleep or eat or do anything right for that matter so i really don't think we can rely on that one.

Actually when I saw this movie I thought that the bag carrier boy from the hotel had somthing to do with it.

"And when too many roads are ahead of you and you don't know which one to choose just sit and wait. Listen to your heart, when he speaks get up and go wherever he takes you " Susanna Tamaro

[–] agnieszka01 14 years ago

Afvp, the confession only "changed the nature of the previous events" in my personal experience of watching the movie. The girls were set up as innocent, all-American young women just out for some fun before they went on the next stages of their lives. I wasn't skeptical about it while watching it; I didn't think of her possible guilt until the confession part.

If you believe she's innocent, that's fine. As I said, the movie is very open to interpretation. It's sort of a mystery. As for the sleep theory, I was obviously not the first one to bring it up, but the poster who did made a good point. It has nothing to do with whether there's any evidence that the "guilty never sleep" phenomenon is scientifically proven in real life. It's just that it's often a convention of storytelling, espececially in movies, to indicate to the audience a character's possible guilt. It's sort of a clue. You can take it as such, or not; the ambiguity is what makes it a fascinating movie.

[–] Tracey73 14 years ago

Great points you make in your post ... and on this entire thread. I never even thought of the possibility that either were guilty until I read this thread.

The way I've interpretted the movie was that both girls had no clue as to what was going on regarding the drugs. Both are young and naive (IMO Darlene seems more naive than Alice, esp because she chose to believe the interrogator and sign something that wasn't written in her language) and both are reacting differently to the same thing happening to them ... Alice is exhausted and falls asleep. Darlene is alert and awake. I think humans are all different and react differently in the same situation.

I love interpretting it as one friend is sacrificing her life for another friend. I never took it that Alice was guilty so she confessed to everything. I think she realized that her best friend could not take it much longer in that prison and that she would sacrfice her life for her best friend. Alice was a much stronger (emotionally and mentally) person and she knew it.

This is just my opinion and interpretation on the movie. All of the arguments on this thread are great ... and this is one reason I love the movie so much - it sort of allows us, as the viewer, to interpret it as we want.

I'm an automatic steeple for depressed and lonely people ~ Blue October

[–] ms_feralcat 14 years ago

The interrogation room scene where Alice was "sleeping" it didn't appear to me that she was definitely asleep. She popped up her head too quickly when the door opened. She may have just had her head down on the table. She may have been sleeping, who knows.

Whether either of them did it or not is irrelevent. It's obvious during their hearing that the police were corrupt. When they got busted at the airport, the police officer pulled two cans out of their bag but according to the report and the pictures taken, they had six cans in that bag. There's no way 6 cans would've fit. Hank makes it very apparent that the police lied.

If you interrupt me again, I'll strangle you.

[–] juxtapose70 13 years ago

I agree with the above person. "Only the guilty sleep?" I sleep all the time. Not in a police station, but I sleep. I must be guilty. ;) Kidding aside, I think that Alice's head was down because she was more confident and didn't believe for one minute that they had anything. She was the stronger of the two.

I don't think she did it. I think that's why she spoke at the end and said "I know people will wonder why I said what I did..." etc. Because she wasn't guilty but also knew that she could endure what her weak and pathetic friend clearly could not. And I think she wanted to amend for all the times she'd gotten them into trouble for all the little things that Beckinsale's dad mentioned. (what an *beep* he was). This was definitely about a dirty, unfair system - just like Return to Paradise.

[–] drummsteven23 13 years ago

The fact that Claire Danes said in an interview that both girls were innocent kind of settles it for me. Had it not been for that, it would be somewhat ambiguous, but I would still lean strongly towards thinking that both girls are innocent. But Danes saying that kind of puts a lid on the whole speculation matter in regards to whether one of the girls might have known about the drugs beforehand. The only possibility is what one other person on here said. Darlene (Beckinsale) might have agreed to carry something on for Nick Parks, but didn't know that it was heroine.