Rating: 
Summary: Negative stars needed!
Review: Bears no resemblance to Le Guin's terrific novel, or the earlier faithful and excellent adaptation. Those responsible for producing this version should not be allowed to work in television/movies again. What a disgrace! Read the novel if you haven't.
Rating:
Summary: How could you even THINK of...
Review: buying this video? What were they thinking? "Hey, let's make about the worst screen adaptation ever of a book!" Well, they succeeded. They must have thought (incorrectly) that no one would ever see the original PBS version. Hah! Sure, the PBS one is dated, but heck, it's a good enough story to look past the effects. Gads...a "Lathe of Heaven" without aliens? What were they thinking?
Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: Comprehensively defanged version of the Ursula LeGuin Scifi classic (her 2nd best novel after the (as yet unfilmed) Left Hand of Darkness), this DVD omits so many plot elements it is barely possible to follow it without having read the book, and if you've read the book, you won't want to. Extra star because it *looks* good, especially the hot young leads, and James Caan and David Strathairn are always watchable. But the up to date special effects treatment of the aliens that many fans were waiting for is absent - in fact, there are no aliens! Plenty else missing, in particular a sense of pacing and excitement somehow got left on the cutting floor. Correctly described by pipingbear as the "Latte of Heaven", sweet as far as it goes, but insubstantial, unsatisfying - and produced by a vast evil conglomerate!
Rating:
Summary: For once I couldn't agree more!
Review: Everyone seems to be in agreement on this title. The PBS version was much, much better and truer to the book. I saw the PBS version as a kid and was impressed with it even then, so much so that as soon as it was available for purchase on DVD this year I bought it. The new version is wooden and left me wondering why the story line had been changed so much. Don't waste you time or money. Purchase the PBS version instead because you won't be disappointed with it.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome Psychological Thriller
Review: George Orr (Lucas Haas) has a unique deformity when he dreams they come true. Plagued by this feeling that he used his dreams to send someone away whom he loved very much, he tries to commit suicide. The court remands him to a court appointed therapist Dr. Haber (James Caan). When Orr confesses his belief about his dreams and that he tries to stay awake so that the world won't change, Haber diagnoses Orr as suffering from a delusional psychosis stemming from adolescent sexual abuse creating a phobic reaction to the dream process that causes amnesia and personality distortion. Through the augmenter, a brain wave monitoring device, Haber gives Orr hypnotic suggestions to control his brain patterns during dreams. Haber discovers Orr is telling the truth and manipulates him to change the world the way he wants, including unleashing a plague to bring down the population. Nurse Penny (Sheila McCarthy), Dr. Haber's secretary, steps in to put a stop to his medalling once and for all. The Lathe of Heaven is based on the book by Ursulla K. Le Guin. The movie consists of eight dream sequences and after each the world is changed. Other than Haber and Penny people in Orr's life are rearranged into different social positions. This was an extremely intriguing movie that kept me on the edge of my seat wondering how it would all end. For Sci-Fi fans, this is a must see!!!
Rating:
Summary: Awesome Psychological Thriller
Review: George Orr (Lucas Haas) has a unique deformity when he dreams they come true. Plagued by this feeling that he used his dreams to send someone away whom he loved very much, he tries to commit suicide. The court remands him to a court appointed therapist Dr. Haber (James Caan). When Orr confesses his belief about his dreams and that he tries to stay awake so that the world won't change, Haber diagnoses Orr as suffering from a delusional psychosis stemming from adolescent sexual abuse creating a phobic reaction to the dream process that causes amnesia and personality distortion. Through the augmenter, a brain wave monitoring device, Haber gives Orr hypnotic suggestions to control his brain patterns during dreams. Haber discovers Orr is telling the truth and manipulates him to change the world the way he wants, including unleashing a plague to bring down the population. Nurse Penny (Sheila McCarthy), Dr. Haber's secretary, steps in to put a stop to his medalling once and for all. The Lathe of Heaven is based on the book by Ursulla K. Le Guin. The movie consists of eight dream sequences and after each the world is changed. Other than Haber and Penny people in Orr's life are rearranged into different social positions. This was an extremely intriguing movie that kept me on the edge of my seat wondering how it would all end. For Sci-Fi fans, this is a must see!!!
Rating:
Summary: The Lathe of Heaven (2002)
Review: Having loved the acclaimed PBS production, I was intrigued to see a new adaptation - but, sadly, this one elicits big yawns, not dreams. First, this is a radically different telling of the story - so which is the faithful adaptation? I understand that would be the 1980 version. Secondly, not expecting this to mimic the original, I still expect it to sustain my interest and tell a satisfying, coherent story - yet James Caan and Lisa Bonet genuinely appear to sleepwalk through their performances. (Doubt that was intended as an homage to the "dream" theme.) Third, David Straithairn is always capable, but expanding his role does little to help the story. Fourth, Angelo Baladamenti is a gifted composer but I felt his musical score actually bickered with the story mood in some scenes. Fifth, unlike the 1980 PBS adaptation - which compels the viewer's attention, is tightly constructed, and progressively and logically draws to an inevitable and novel resolution - this new story line seems to meander. Sixth, in the closing scene, Lisa Bonet's and Lukas Haas' eloqution was so languid and sloppy, I actually had to turn on subtitles to understand their spoken dialogue. Thus, I actively denounce this "Lathe" as anything but "heavenly." Another reviewer mentioned having to rewatch the 1980 version to "get over it"; interestingly, I, too, felt that need - and was thrilled to see how beautifully it held up - far and away, the version to see and treasure.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing story worth many repeat viewings.
Review: Having never read the novel this story is based on or seen the 1980s version, I was really surprised with the depth of story and the well-crafted presentation of this psychological film. (I give it my highest compliment... it really does seem like a story Philip K. Dick would have written.) When he dreams, George Orr's dreams alter reality. Controlling reality is harder than you'd expect. George blames himself for all the evils of the world and his attempts to rectify things always have unforeseen consequences. Obviously for the film much thought was given to creating just the right atmosphere for several unique versions of our future society. (Multiple viewings will reveal how well the costumes, characters and set design evolve together throughout the story. The bonus material also adds some new spins.) I love the ending here, it's open to much interpretation, however finding anyone who has seen the film to discuss it with is hard to do. Keep your eyes on Manny! His every line is rich with meaning. My favorite is this one, "Believing what you know to be true and nobody else does doesn't make you crazy. Looney maybe."
Rating:
Summary: A Terrible Disappointment
Review: I am not someone who insists that a movie adhere strictly to the book on which it is based. Moreover, I recognize that a teleplay must omit some parts of the book in order to fit in an 80-minute timeframe. However, I expect the essential theme of the book to be maintained. This adaptation fails miserably in that respect. Rather than paint a picture of the futility of playing God, director Philip Haas chose to give us a one-dimensional cliché of the self-aggrandizing scientist (James Caan's Dr. Haber) and us a shallow love story. Haber's desire to mold a better world through George Orr's power, his attempt to convince George to join him in the effort rather than resist, and his inability to see that the consequences of meddling with reality are unpredictable -- all of this is lost in Haas' adaptation. Instead, we see Haber using George to obtain successively more magnificent office space and a progressively more fashionable secretary. George's love interest, Heather, is reduced to an odd obsession; Heather's own attempt (and failure) in LeGuin's novel to use George's power for public good never appears in Haas' film. Perhaps the pettiest departure from the book was Haas' choice to have Dr. Haber say "New York" (instead of "Antwerp") as the phrase that induces George Orr's dreams under hypnosis in their first session. Interestingly, Haber never uses the phrase again in any of the subsequent dream scenes. Maybe Haas was embarrassed by his own pettiness. Even as a standalone movie, this film is a poor one. Lisa Bonet's character, Heather, was completely unbelievable. Are we really supposed to accept that a successful and self-assertive lawyer will drive out to a remote location and jump into bed with a psychiatric patient about whom she knows very little and that she will remain there with him for days in the face of his increasingly obsessive behavior - simply because he says he feels he knew her from a previous life? In another scene, we are given hints that George's friend, Manny, may be more than he seems. He appears in each of George's realities, and he seems to recall all of them. Yet Haas does nothing with this. The final scenes are rushed and confusing, leaving the viewer with the sense that Haas simply ended the show in order to fit into the time he had available. Philip Haas has not made a decent movie since his 1995 "Angels and Insects." This version of "The Lathe of Heaven" continues his streak of losers. If you want to see a good film adaptation of LeGuin's book, buy the 1980 PBS version instead.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and thoughtful.
Review: I can understand people being disappointed when a film doesn't live up to the image of a book their imaginations have built. If you are bogged down by expectations based on the book and original movie, I can only suggest you look to this not to see something you've seen before, but as a re-telling of a story, as fables and legends become changed over time. ... So what if A&E didn't squeeze aliens into a 90 minute timeframe. What IS here stands on its own, and is a fine movie. And the cast is pretty.
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