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Here
On Earth reviews
I
personally LOVED this movie...everything but the ending! If I were
her, I would have picked Jasper (Josh Hartnett) over Kelley (Chris
Klein) any day! ....but I guess that's just my opinion...anyways,
the movie was sweet, funny, sad, etc...I felt every emotion at least
10 times during this movie!
by
Rose
The
first time I watched Here On Earth I wasn't really into Josh Hartnett.
Sure I knew who he was and yeah, sure he was pretty cute but that
first time I watched it I thought, ''Wow, he is some great actor'.
I remeber watching it at school but missing the last ten minutes
because I had another class, so that week I borrowed it from the
video store just to watch those last 10 minutes. I just recently
bought a copy, and my mum watched it. When it was finnished she
walked into my room and said 'You never told me it would make me
cry'. Josh and Chris Klein made the movie seem real, you could feel
what they were going through. They are both great actors but watching
it made me realise just how talented Josh really was, and that he
wasn't just some 'Hottie' who got a lucky break.
Cassandra,
aust
Movie
Reviews: Here On Earth
Here on Earth (2000) is being plowed under by most reviewers. Jack
Mathews in the New York Daily News compares it to "a bad soap
opera." For Jay Carr of the Boston Globe, it's a "tepid
tearjerker." Elvis Mitchell in the New York Times describes
it as "the best Movie of 1961, lacking only the beautiful and
vacant visages of Troy Donahue and Suzanne Pleshette to make it
complete." Likewise Steve Murray in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
comments that the movie "is stuck in a 45-year time warp."
'Here
on Earth' Is a Contrived but Winning Tale of Young Love
KEVIN THOMAS TIMES STAFF WRITER Friday March 24, 2000
Tone
down a bit of already reasonably discreet sexual candor and you
could believe that "Here on Earth" not only takes place
in the '50s but was actually made back then. It's an old-fashioned
story of young love, enlivened by an attractive cast and settings,
that evolves into a shameless tear-jerker of the most manipulative
sort.
This may, however, make it just the ticket for girls in their early
teens, for stars Chris Klein, Leelee Sobieski and Josh Hartnett
are already teen favorites. You can in fact appreciate the sincerity
of their performances even if you find the picture pretty sappy.
Klein's Kelley is a young man who seems to have everything. In addition
to being tall, dark and handsome, he's also smart and rich. On the
eve of Kelley's graduation from a venerable New England prep school,
his father presents him with a Mercedes. Kelley's not supposed to
drive it until after he's delivered his speech as valedictorian
of his class, but what the heck: He and some pals pile in and head
for the local diner, traditionally off-limits for preppies in a
community beset by unaccountably high town-and-gown tensions.
Kelley is waited on by the lovely Samantha (Sobieski), who has college
and possibly medical school in the future and who shares an appreciation
for poetry with the sophisticated and cocky Kelley. Their mutual
attraction is instantaneous, and thereby Kelley incurs the anger
of Samantha's boyfriend, Jasper (Hartnett), who's in the diner with
his own pals. Pretty soon Kelley and Jasper are caught up in a chicken
race that winds up with them crashing their vehicles into the diner/gas
station. No one is seriously hurt, but the diner et al. is wrecked
by fire.
The upshot is that even though the local judge is happy to have
Kelley's father foot the bill for rebuilding the roadside establishment,
she insists that Kelley and Jasper spend their summer helping in
its reconstruction. The film doesn't spend much time with the guys
on the job and instead focuses on the more than ample free time
that allows Kelley and Samantha to fall in love. Jasper's and Samantha's
families are less than thrilled with this development, of course,
but Kelley and Samantha's love flourishes.
It would have been good to see whether their relationship would
stand the test of time and distance, for it is pretty clear that
wherever--or whenever, for that matter--Samantha ends up for her
college education, it's not likely to be Princeton, where Kelley
is headed in the fall. But no, writer Michael Seitzman throws in
an ancient plot device that in effect arbitrarily takes responsibility
away from Kelley and Samantha in regard to working out their destinies
so that the film may indulge in some sure-fire heart-tugging.
As contrived as "Here on Earth" seems, it nonetheless
benefits from committed direction by TV veteran Mark Piznarski in
his feature debut. Indeed, the film is sturdy enough to allow Klein
and Sobieski to shine. Hartnett has the toughest role, for he has
to become noble and self-sacrificing, which he manages to do without
becoming either insufferable or wimpy. "Here on Earth"
is a fine-looking film with much pastoral beauty and a quaint village
setting, though its neatest trick is to pass off Minnesota as Massachusetts.
* MPAA rating: PG-13, for some sensuality and thematic issues. Times
guidelines: The film is too intense for the very young.
'Here on Earth'
Chris Klein: Kelley
Leelee Sobieski: Samantha
Josh Hartnett: Jasper
Michael Rooker: Jasper's father
A Fox 2000 Pictures presentation. Director Mark Piznarski. Producer
David T. Friendly. Executive producer Jeffrey Downer. Screenplay
Michael Seitzman. Cinematographer Michael D. O'Shea. Editor Robert
Frazen. Music Andrea Morricone. Costumes Isis Mussenden. Production
designer Dina Lipton. Art director James F. Truesdale. Set designers
Richard Fernandez, Richard Romig. Set decorator Diana Stoughton.
Running time: 1 hour, 36 minutes.
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