Its hard to adapt a good book faithfully. They did a decent job on this one. . Unfortunately the bad outweighs the good on this heavily dated version of a sci-fi classic.Lathe of Heaven tells the tale of the unfortunate George Orr(Bruce Davidson). George has a unique ability, when he dreams the dream becomes reality. Scared of what his dreams might do George takes illegal amounts of drugs and has an overdose. In order to avoid any serious punishment he goes to 'voluntary therapy' with Dr. Haber(Kevin Conway). Dr. Haber eventually catches on to George's abilities and tries to use them to better mankind. It doesn't work out very well.
The film preserves the novels pondering nature. We see the comparisons to the nearly apathetic George Orr and the overwhelmingly benevolent Dr. Haber. George just tries to go with the flow, while Dr. Haber attempts to control everything. It's a film about the consequences of trying to fix complex problems with simple solutions.
The bad with this particular film lies simply in its production. It has some laughably bad aliens and spaceships and the like. Its shot in the style of films like Alphaville or Code 46 in that they dont really do much to make things look like the future. It works in this film too but not to the level of the aforementioned titles. It does feel like the future but I cant help but say it feels like a cheap future. Not to mention a space invasion scene(that should have just been cut) comprised entirely of stock footage of planes taking off and missiles being launched.
Don't get me wrong. I think you can make something great with no money at all. Its been done(Versus, Texas Chainsaw Massacre). The problem with this film is that it was trying to do things above its means. Unfortunately these shortcoming eventually outweigh what the film has going for it.
2/5 "To much bad, not enough good."
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