Here on Earth

A rich prep school brat (Chris Klein) falls for a level-headed working-class girl (Leelee Sobieski)—but she’s got one of those mysterious diseases whereby movie stars can drop dead without losing their looks. Sound familiar, old-timers? Erich Segal, call your lawyer—Michael Seitzman’s script is a shameless rip-off of Love Story. But the theft hardly matters since this mawkish weep-fest is aimed at kids whose parents hadn’t even met way back when Ali MacGraw sobbed out her life in Ryan O’Neal’s arms. If the film hits pay dirt, it will have less to do with the lame script and colorless direction (by Mark Piznarski) than with the appealing young stars and their supporting cast—especially Josh Hartnett as Sobieski’s jilted boyfriend and Annette O’Toole and Bruce Greenwood as her parents.