Main Cast: John Livingston, Sabrina Lloyd, Bruno Campos, Reuben Grundy, Kathleen Antonia
Release Year: 2003
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
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
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
Cast
Sabrina Lloyd - Sarah
John Livingston - Rand
Bruno Campos - Winston
Reuben Grundy - Johnson
Kathleen Antonia - Tammy
Nicole Wilder - Machiko
Credit
Joe Schlick - Art Director, Brian Benson - Co-producer, Timothy Breitbach - Co-producer, Liz Decena - Co-producer, Deirde Scully - Costume Designer, Mark Decena - Director, Jessica Congdon - Editor, Eric Kovisto - Executive Producer, Eric Holland - Composer (Music Score), Jonathan McHugh - Musical Direction/Supervision, S. Quinn - Production Designer, Robert Humphereys - Cinematographer, Tad Fettig - Producer, Debbie Brubaker - Producer, Lisa Clark - Set Designer, Bob Gitzen - Sound/Sound Designer, Mark Decena - Screenwriter, Timothy Breitbach - Screenwriter
A compound, hydroxytyramine, produced by the decarboxylation of dopa; an intermediate product in the synthesis of norepinephrine. It is a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system; administered intravenously to correct hemodynamic imbalance in shock syndrome.
d. β-hydroxylase — enzyme catalyzing the synthesis of norepinephrine from dopamine. A copper-containing mono-oxygenase requiring vitamin C (ascorbic acid).
Rand is a computer animator, who has created an artificial intelligence creature designed to interact with children and teach them responsibility. When his prototype is forced into practice at a school, Rand encounters Sarah, a teacher he was inexplicably drawn to, at his favorite bar one fateful evening. Sparks fly between them, but fundamental differences in their approaches to love and relationships slow them down to a halt.
