Here on Earth

Then again, if this movie is any indication, maybe girls really do prefer jerks. Sensitive, bare-chested jerks, anyway. Chris Klein (American Pie, Election) plays Kelley, yet another obnoxious wealthy scion (for an industry that has gotten so fat off the moviegoing public's largesse, Hollywood sure likes to suck up to working folks by making the moneyed class look bad), who gets sentenced to a summer of penitent community service after crashing his valedictory gift Mercedes into a diner in the little Massachusetts town near his exclusive prep school. Rather than waste time establishing anything so frivolous as character or motivation, that happens in the first five minutes.

When the smoke clears, brooding Kelley falls for Samantha (Leelee Sobieski, who was in Never Been Kissed, but also has such impressive dramatic credentials as the "Joan of Arc" miniseries and Eyes Wide Shut), girlfriend of the antagonistic townie he was street-racing. Her sister was impregnated and dumped by another preppie a few years earlier, so nobody is very kindly disposed toward this development. Being an aspiring poet (and ailing track star), she finds his good side (even if we can't) by learning they have a common favorite in Robert Frost's "Birches" (hence the film's title).

Unfortunately, the only element trotted out in youthmarket movies as frequently as limp comedy is overt tragedy; in Here on Earth all manner of dark secret and unpleasant biology soon come into play. That's not necessarily a bad thing, since at least it avoids some of the more bonehead contemporary clichés. But it's a lot tougher to cry and look convincingly pained than to belch and drop trou. The scrubbed, bright-eyed ingenuousness that made Klein an excellent comedic foil in Election seems rather wooden here, especially paired with Sobieski, who at 17 not only looks and sounds, but acts much like a younger Helen Hunt. He fails to sell his character's transition from spoiled brat to renaissance empath, often struggling to keep up while she hints a telltale "come on, work with me here, don't make me carry the whole thing" look in her eyes.

To its credit, this film's heart is in the right place, portraying teens with a more realistic degree of complexity than is the case in any of the movies referenced above. But that's, as they say, damning with faint praise. C+

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