Kelley (Chris Klein) finds true love with Samantha (Leelee Sobieski).
here on earth

This is something we think we’ve seen before, but we haven’t. A brand new Mercedes sports car pulls into the parking lot of Mable’s Table, a diner on the edge of the small town of Putnam, nestling in the hills of the Berkshires, one of the most peaceful and beautiful parts of Massachusetts.
The car is driven by Kelvin ‘Kelley’ Morse (American Pie star Chris Klein), an arrogant, rich young pupil at a local boarding school called Rallston’s Academy. It is the eve of graduation day, and Kelley has been tapped to deliver the valedictorian address. He’s not supposed to be in the car - a gift from his very rich but distinctly hands-off dad (Stuart Wilson) - because the Rallston term is not yet over. But he’s sneaked it out of the pound along with a couple of friends for a joy-ride into town.

Inside Mable’s, Kelley and his friends are completely out of place among the ‘Putties’ - the graduating class of the local high school, who are there for a celebration: their graduation day is over. Worse, Kelley seems determined to pick a fight with Jasper (Josh Hartnett, who played Jamie Lee Curtis’ son in Halloween: H20 and has since had major roles in The Faculty and Sofia Coppola’s just-released The Virgin Suicides), the son of a local builder with whom he has already had a run-in the previous day.
The scene ends with a Rebel Without a Cause-style car race which climaxes with both cars crashing and Mable’s being burned to the ground. Here on Earth is not, however, a teen conflict movie, nor even one about revolt, although both Jasper and Kelley are rebels in their own ways. It is a love story on a scale and of an intensity that recalls the 1970 movie of that name featuring Ali McGraw and Ryan O’Neal.
The key moment in the first Mable’s Table scene isn’t Kelley’s face-off with Jasper: it’s his encounter with Samantha (Leelee Sobieski), whose Mom owns the place and who works there as a waitress. It will shape both the rest of the movie and the rest of Kelley’s life.
In the aftermath of the double car wreck, he and Jasper are sentenced to a very particular form of community service: to spend their summer working together with Jasper’s father, rebuilding the burnt-out diner. Kelley at first rebels against this, especially when part of the deal is that he bunk with Jasper’s family.