Lathe of Heaven

I thought this was a well made re-make of the 1980 PBS special, which starred Bruce Davison, not Craig Wasson as another reviewer mistakenly noted. (You might remember Bruce Davison as Senator Kelly form X-Men) the real fun I noticed was the Six degrees of separation aspect that Kevin Conway who played Dr. Haber in the 1980 version starred in a movie in 1991 called Rambling Rose with Lukas Haas who would end up playing Orr in this re-make. But I digress, The most exciting thing about this film was it's ability to prove that Lisa Bonet actually CAN act. Seriously, this is a cerebral Sci-Fi movie and a very watchable one at that. I thought Haas was a mismatch for the part but he was able to pull it off.

I am at a loss to understand why producers feel the need to remake perfectly good movies into mediocre movies. I just don't get it.

Ursula K. Le Guin's tale of George Orr, a wretched young man with the power to alter reality by literally dreaming up a new one, is a good story with many layers. George falls victim to a well-meaning (at first, anyway) psychotherapist, Dr. Haber, who uses George to remake the universe. George is one of those poor souls who cannot resist the will of anyone he perceives to be an authority and consequently finds himself remaking the universe to Haber's specifications. We all know that the road to a well known place is paved with good intentions, and this supplies the conflict that makes the drama.

If you've never read Ursula K. Le Guin's novel or seen the 1980 PBS film, you might like this effort. Otherwise, don't waste your time. This movie wimped out in several places by watering down the script to avoid any racial overtones, so well handled in both the book and the earlier film. There were other instances where I felt the script writers and the producer were trying to be as PC as possible. The story dragged, and all in all I found it flat.

The casting was OK with one exception -- Lisa Bonet, a generally competent actress, was sadly miscast as Heather LeLache, George's court-appointed lawyer. The role called for an in your face, very black lady with an attitude, not a wimpy cutie.

I agree with the consensus. This film stinks. The true plot is brusquely steamrolled over in order to force the emphasis toward a badly cast romance between George and Heather.

This type of butchery is very common these days. Look at most of the `original series' on the Sci-fi (sic) channel. Get a bunch of young and beautiful people into spaceships, fill it with flashing lights, a crotchety alien with a bony forehead and the personality of your uncle Irving, derivative dialog about `shields failing' and `re-routing emergency power', don't EVER have an original or though provoking story-line and voila you get the distilled pap that passes these days as science fiction.

Its unfortunate that style, special effects and sex-appeal are what now count instead of real dialog and story. The original Lathe of Heaven wasn't perfect, but everything about it, from the slow build-up of George's relation with Dr. Haber, to the philosophical discussions about righting the world's wrongs made for an engaging and genuine exercise in science fiction.

Big budgets, merchandising tie-ins, vapid music and a bland dumbed-down appeal characterize far too many productions these days.

PBS in San Francisco broadcast the original every night for a week in, I believe 1978, and I'm old enough to have taped it on my newly invented, right-out-of-the-box, VHS recorder. I still have that well-used tape and still drag it out to watch every few years. What made the original so compelling was not only the delicious characterizations by an extraordinary cast, and the exploration of significant social issues - nuclear war, racial tensions, misguided social engineering, etc., all prominent issues of the day (okay, so what's changed?) but the surreal quality of the visual presentation that mirrored the pattern of dreams in a chillingly recognizable way.

In this era of extraordinary graphics capabilities, I eagerly looked forward to new interpretations of the dream sequences so central to the story. Unfortunately, the new interpretation was to eliminate them altogether, along with most of the plot elements, and thereby substituting the original production's cognitive dissonance with somnambulance.

Big words. Lousy movie. Somebody PLEASE try again.

Having read LeGuinn's book and seen PBS's excellent rendering of her story this new version is a crashing disappointment. The first problem is that there is so little left of the story that much of its impact is missing. In spite of being light on effects and budget the earlier PBS production makes much better use of its resources to communicate LeGuinn's apocalyptic drama to the viewer.

What happened to the space aliens? They seem to be replaced by David Straithorn's character who occasionally pops into scenes with sage verbiage. Unfortunately, so much has been stripped that there is no tissue left to connect him to what little plot remains after the producers and directors finished their hatchet job on content and context. Who knows why they did that?

What's left is a nothingness rivaled only by Jor-Jor's apocalyptic reality. In order to understand what's going on here, one might want to read the book, or view PBS's 1980's telling of the story. Please don't waste your time with this turkey, especially since the PBS version is available on DVD.