Pocketful of Dreams. Review on Here on Earth Movie

'People spend a lifetime without even knowing love…I've fallen in love…'

Does the essence of these words ring a bell? I'm sure it does.

All love stories aim at the core of the beating heart. Mark Piznarski's 'Here on Earth' hits the nail right on the head. It whips your senses like a whiff of fresh breeze leaving you with a nice, warm tingle inside.

In these days of Austin-in-your-face-Powers and Jackie-I'm-in-action-Chans a movie such as this one is a welcome change. Three young lives intersect one fateful summer in Putnam, Massachusetts leading each character to create their own destinies.

Kelley Morse (Chris Klein); brash, prep school jock locks horns with local resident Jasper (Josh Hartnett) in an automobile duel resulting in the wrecking of a local diner. The diner belongs to jasper's girl friend Samantha's (Leelee Sobieski) family. Kelley is sentenced to stay in Putnam and help rebuild the eating house. To make matters even more delicate he is forced by circumstances to stay with jasper's family.

What follows is a deep romance between a reluctant Kelley and a vulnerable Samantha despite adverse negativity from jasper and Samantha's family. When the summer romance elevates itself to undying love fate drops a nasty one on the two young lovers. Samantha is a victim of a cancer of the knee. It always takes a tragic crisis to intensify the impact of a love story. Well, writer Michael Seitzman does a special job in creating an ultimately convincing tearjerker. At first glance one can flippantly dismiss 'Here on Earth' as a soppy, stereotypical sodden tissue paper experience. But a true eye can see that it's a sweet and simple story of three lives that affect each other inducing the characters to deal with the events in a mature and realistic way.

Chris Klein makes an impressive change from his clean-cut footballer in 'American Pie'. He brings Kelley Morse's cocky confident, rich boy turned man-in-love to life poetically. Love isn't the only emotion that changes Kelley, another catalyst is the strength he witnesses in both Samantha and Jasper's families.

Leelee Sobieski; a professional actress in her own might (Deep Impact, Joan of Arc, Never been Kissed, Eyes Wide Shut) is engaging as the romantic leading lady. Her Samantha is gentle, smart warm and going through her own set of changes that fateful summer that help her identify with Kelley. The final element to this love triangle Jasper (Hartnett- soon to be seen in Sophia Coppola's 'The Virgin Suicides') at first borders on being a threat to the fulfillment of Samantha's love for Kelley. But towards the end he is the staunch friend who ensures the happiness of the woman he's always loved.

From a production point of view it stands different from others in the genre thanks to its picturesque pastoral locales. Birch trees form both a physical and spiritual backdrop for the flow of the film.

'I'd like to get away from earth for awhile

and then come back to it and begin over

may no fate willfully misunderstand me

and half grant what I wish and snatch me away

not to return. Earth's the right place for love….'

Resonating words from Robert Frost's 'Birches' encircle the proceedings like a soft blanket of hope.

On a concluding note if not for the fresh faced performances or the unique natural settings 'Here on Earth' is worth a watch for keeping the tradition of the emotional, romantic drama alive.