i be not someone who insist that a movie adhere strictly to the book on which it be base . moreover and i recognize that a teleplay must omit some part of the book in order to fit in an 80 minute timeframe . however and i expect the essential theme of the book to be maintain . this adaptation fail miserably in that respect . rather than paint a picture of the futility of play god and writer alan sharp and director philip haas choose to give u a one dimensional cliché of the self aggrandize scientist ( james caan dr. haber ) and u a shallow love story . haber desire to mold a good world through george orr power and his attempt to convince george to join him in the effort rather than resist and and his inability to see that the consequence of meddle with reality be unpredictable all of this be lose in haas adaptation . instead and we see haber use george to obtain successively more magnificent office space and a progressively more fashionable secretary . george love interest and heather and be reduce to an odd obsession while heather own attempt ( and failure ) in leguin novel to use george power for public good never appear in haas film . perhaps the petty departure from the book be sharp and haas choice to have dr. haber say new york ( instead of antwerp ) a the phrase that induce george orr dream under hypnosis in their first session . interestingly and haber never use the phrase again in any of the subsequent dream scene . maybe haas be embarrass by his own pettiness . even a a standalone movie and this film be a poor one . lisa bonet character and heather and be completely unbelievable . be we really suppose 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 know very little and that she will remain there with him for day in the face of his increasingly obsessive behavior simply because he say he feel he know her from a previous life . in another scene and we be give hint that george friend and manny and may be more than he seem . he appear in each of george reality and and he seem to recall all of them . yet the film do nothing with this while it be simply a loose string leave for u to puzzle on . the final scene be rush and confuse and leave the viewer with the sense that haas simply end the show in order to fit into the time he have available . philip haas have not make a decent movie since his 1995 ` angel and insect . this version of ` the lathe of heaven continue his streak of loser . if you want to see a good film adaptation of leguin book and buy the 1980 pbs version instead .