Lathe of Heaven (film)


Lathe of Heaven is a 2002 television film based on the similarly named 1971 science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin and a remake of the 1980 adaptation. It was produced for the A&E network in 2002. The film was written and directed by Alan Sharpe and Philip Haas. It was nominated for the 2003 Saturn Award for Best Single Program Presentation.

Synopsis

Lathe of Heaven stars James Caan, Lukas Haas, and Lisa Bonet. Unlike the 1980 adaptation, it discards a significant portion of the plot, some minor characters, and much of the philosophical underpinnings of the book. The alien invasion and the racial equalization were removed for this adaptation.
The film takes place in a futuristic society, where a young man named George Orr overdoses using someone else's pharmacy card. Orr is troubled by his dreams, and is implied to be suicidal because of them. He takes drugs to avoid having these dreams. After he is caught overdosing, his attorney Heather Lelache sends him to a psychologist as a punishment.
The psychologist, William Haber, uses a machine called an "augmentor" to delve deep into Orr's mind. The augmentor looks like a dentist's chair. It is soon obvious that Haber has sinister intentions. He begins to hypnotize Orr into dreaming about a horse in a field. When Orr wakes up from his hypnosis-induced dream, an image of Lady Godiva on a horse is now painted on the wall in the office.
Haber then begins to use Orr's power for his own personal gain. At one point, he changes his status from an M.D. to a highly renowned researcher.