Kelley (Chris Klein) is a spoiled rich kid attending private school. He gets in a fight with some poor, uneducated locals and ends up destroying the town diner in a drag race. In fact, in pure movie fashion, the damn thing blows the hell up! To make amends, he must spend his summer rebuilding the diner rather than go to jail. He falls in love with Samantha played by Leelee Sobieski whose family owns the diner. Their love story is truly innocent and highlighted by long walks in the woods, holding hands and quoting poetry. Yawn.
Do teenagers act like this today? Yikes! Samantha’s previous boyfriend is jealous and there’s fighting and drama and then a really contrived ending in which somebody dies. Guess who? Chris Klein has about the intensity of a 25 watt light bulb, however, there is a real shining star in Leelee Sobieski who really takes the role to heart. She played the underage prostitute in Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut” last year and you can expect better things from her in the future.
“Here on Earth” is like a romantic comedy, without the comedy and it’s going to have a difficult time appealing to anyone outside of teenage girls. For me, it was like the movie version of cottage cheese. I don’t hate cottage cheese, I just don’t go out of my way to eat this lame food. This is the kind of sentimental romantic film that would have been really popular – in the 1950s! In fact, the film has an “East of Eden” feel to it, which isn’t terrible, it just seems terribly unrealistic.
