Product Details

• Released on: 2004-04-13
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Dolby, Widescreen, NTSC, Import
• Original language: English
• Running time: 79 minutes

Review
Dopamine is an artistic and occasionally overreaching study of the causation of love -- namely, whether it's something profound and intangible, or whether it's just chemical impulse. Mark Decena's film never figures out the answer, but it leaves one with the sense that a useful discussion has been tapped. It's not that Rand, the computer programmer played with quiet understatement by John Livingston, is incapable of romanticism; it's that he's been conditioned to note his physical reactions upon feeling attraction (the adrenaline bursts from the smell of perfume, for instance). As a clear line of demarcation from the scientist, Sabrina Lloyd is the free-spirited teacher who paints on canvas rather than on a computer screen and considers love strictly mental and emotional. Add in Koy Koy the computerized pet as a stand-in for the closed-off programmer, and Dopamine has some fairly obvious metaphors and methodology. But it's effective because it uses these symbols to provoke thought in the audience, even if that thought doesn't coalesce into clear conclusions. (How could it, when the topic is so fertile?) Digging at the heart of the dichotomy are the chemistry-themed voice-overs from Rand's father, a husband dealing with his wife's Alzheimer's, who has retreated to his dispassionate explanation of love out of bitterness. Because it exists on this intellectual and sometimes remote level, Dopamine should please the scientists in the audience a bit more than the romantics. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide

On the DVD
ccCommentary with director/writer Mark Decena, writer Tim Breitbach, and actress Sabrina Lloyd
Deleted scenes
Behind-the-scenes featurette
Highlights from the 2003 Sundance Film Series
Theatrical trailer
Director's introduction
"One of Those Days": A short by Mark Decena, 1996 Sundance Film Festival, official selection

Synopsis
Mark Decena makes his directorial debut with the romantic comedy Dopamine. In San Francisco during the economic heyday of computer technology, Rand (John Livingston) works as a software designer. He and his co-workers, Winston (Bruno Campos) and Johnson (Reuben Grundy), have created a toy called Koy Koy, an A.I. cyber-pet that can respond to its owner's voice. Rand's love life hasn't been very productive, especially because his father (William Windom) has been repeatedly telling him that love is just a series of chemical reactions ever since his mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. One day, Rand goes out to the bar after work and meets preschool teacher Sarah (Sabrina Lloyd), whom he feels strongly attracted to. When his company test markets his cyber-pet to little kids, Rand meets Sarah again and they are instantly connected. Despite their differing opinions on the chemical nature of love, Rand and Sarah begin a romance that puts their theories to the test. The film also stars Kathleen Antonia and Nicole Wilder. Shot on digital video, Dopamine premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Customer Reviews

good pick by sundance
Nice little movie that really questions, is love real or just a series of chemical reactions that push us to do or say different things that our brains processes as love or lust. Both Livingston and Llyod do a great job of not overacting their parts and there is a 'chemistry' about the two of them that is not overpowering but gradually grows as the movie progresses.

Leaves you wanting more
The central theme of this film is endlessly fascinating: do we have genuine feelings in the classical/romantic sense, or are our emotions simply the sum of neurochemical processes? A sub-theme, the nature of artificial intelligence and how much it has in common with the human psyche, has been far more developed in films such as "A.I." and "Bladerunner," but was nevertheless poignant in the character of Koy-Koy. There was some intelligent scripting here, though the material on brain chemistry failed to go much beyond what one could glean from one good newspaper article. I felt it was a missed opportunity to really explore the topic in depth. The the actor playing Rand stands out as a real natural. Nice tasteful soundtrack. An enjoyable and touching film, but it felt a bit thin and underdeveloped.

Is chemistry everything?
Dopamine is an unusually thoughtful romantic drama that asks whether romantic love is a purely chemical phenomenon. With such an intellectual theme, the movie could easily have been artificial and nothing but a series of cerebral discussions, but director Mark Decena does a good job in making it all very natural and compelling. Strong performances also help to flesh this out into something more than a thesis. Rand (John Livingston) is a computer programmer who has created an animated character named Koy-Koy; right from the beginning, it's obvious that he is a bit too attached to his creation. If human emotions are nothing beyond chemical reactions, then a computer-generated creature could conceivably be considered human, or at least alive. When Rand meets Sarah (Sabrina Lloyd), the teacher in whose classroom Koy-Koy is going to be placed, the two enter upon a series of discussions and debates over the nature of romantic love, as well as embark upon a tentative romance of their own. Sarah is skeptical of Rand's coldly scientific view of love, but is herself very ambivalent about getting emotionally involved. Rand gradually reveals that his point of view is a way to protect himself from painful family experiences. Both exhibit a wide enough range of emotional responses to help counter the artifice of the basic theme (i.e. in real life, everything seldom revolves around one particular philosophical question). The camera work and understated shots of the San Francisco locations also breathe soul into the film .