Print Page - "The Lathe Of Heaven"

A read Ursula K LeGuin's "Wizard Of Earthsea" trilogy when I was young, so when I saw she had written the story behind The Lathe Of Heaven (http://www.imdb.com/Title?0290230) I had to pick it up.

The story is that a young man, George Orr, is court-ordered to attend a psychiatrist due to a drug use arrest. When meeting with the psych (James Caan as Dr Haber), he reveals that he took the drugs to keep from dreaming, because whenever he dreams, reality changes. He's the only one aware of the changes, but he's afraid he dreamed someone out of existance who was close to him.

The doctor initially blames George's psychosis on an adolescent sexual trauma, but as he starts experimenting in George's dreams, George suspects that Haber really believes him, and is using him for hos own benefit. Every time George wakes up from a dream with the doctor, the doctor has a bigger office, more prestige, etc.. So George tries to escape from the now-powerful dotor, with the help of his public-defender, Heather LeLache (Lisa Bonet). Haber, in his deperation, also tries to imprint Orr's brainwave patterns on own brain, to give him the same dream power as Orr.

Eventually, Haber gets the power briefly, and in an ironic ending, Haber is a psychiatric patient with no short term memory, Orr is his doctor, and Heather is a waitress at a cafe they visit.

Caan and Lukas Haas (George Orr) both due a good job. Caan can play deveptive malice very wll, and Haas does a good job as the insecure, self-persecuted Orr.

This movie played out like an TV episode of "The Outer Limits", and I strongly suspect it originally was. Unfortunately it has all the bad marks of such an approach. While the movie has a very surreal creepy feeling all along, the climax doesn't build quite high enough, and the conclusion has a sorta ambigious feel that should be ironic and either haunting or uplifting but is instead just sorta 'ok, now the world is different, ain't that creepy? huh?'

There were also a few story arcs that could've been very intriguing. In once scene, one character alludes to having always been with Orr, although in different roles. This hints at him having a memory of what his life was like before George's latest dream which could've been explored. (A "Dark City"-like slow realization that 'reality isn't quite right' could've been powerful). However this arc is not addressed. Also, while Haber is using Orr's power for his own benefit, the side effect is pretty beneficial. The grey-drab overcrowded reality George' knows initially, is replaced with a more colorful world of space and openness and less people; arguably a better reality. Since Orr's dreams change the past, the people who don't exist in the new reality could be said to never have existed in the first place. There's an ethical issue in there about whether or not causing people to not have existed would be the same as causing them to not continue to exist (murder?) Since the people in the new reality have a *much* better existance (especially Haber, of course, but Orr uis also now quite rich), there should be an ethical confrontation between at least two of the characters (any two of the three principles would do) over whether what Haber is doing is really wrong or not. Unfortunately, the movie takes the easy way out and paints Orr and Haber as pretty morally two dimensional so the potential for the implications of Orr's ability.

Ultimately, the movie, through the use of mood and setting, tries to build an air of mystery and ominousness. While it does succeed (very well, actually) at creating the right mood in the production, the writing is not quite powerful enough to give the mood real power as too many areas of exploration are not persued.

A fairly enjoyable movie to watch, with good atmosphere and some good ideas, but not quite as much depth as it really wants. I suspect that LeGuin's story has more bite

Post Edited (08-18-03 14:00)

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