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Dopamine

2003, Movie, R, 84 mins

Dopamine: Review

DOPAMINE
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Wise beyond their years in matters of the heart, first-time director Mark Decena and his writing partner Timothy Breitbach have created an uncommonly smart and bittersweet romantic comedy that asks an interesting question. In an era when it seems our every mood is alterable through chemical modification, how can we be sure that what we regard as "love" isn't simply the result of some physiological reaction? Rand (John Livingston) is a young San Francisco computer animator who firmly believes that love is all a matter of stuff like pheromones, norepinephrine and dopamine — all those bodily chemicals that can make our pulses pound and our hearts skip a beat. Rand gets a lot of this from his father, who knows from bitter experience. For 30 years he'd been head-over-heels in love with his wife, who, now stricken with Alzheimer's disease, has become a virtual stranger to him. Rand's father believes that once the hormones stopped flowing, the powerful love they once shared evaporated. Theoretically speaking, then, relationships should be programmable, and Rand is putting theory into practice. Rand and his business partners are developing something they call "Koy Koy" for a group of Japanese investors. Designed to behave like a pet, Koy Koy is a computer generated creature that, thanks to Rand's coding, will respond to hunger, fear and — best of all — affection. Koy Koy is still in the development stages, but the money men are eager to test the product's appeal out in the field, and have arranged to run a beta version at a local learning center. In an uncomfortable coincidence, one of the teachers at the school turns out to be Sarah (Sabrina Lloyd), a pretty young painter with whom Rand shared a brief flirtation at a nearby watering-hole before his friend and co-worker Winston (Bruno Campos) swooped down and snatched her away for a one-night-stand. Rand is annoyed at the thought of his beloved Koy Koy being judged by a bunch of five-year-olds, and Sarah thinks a flesh-and-blood pet would be a much better idea than a computerized bird. Nevertheless, the spark they both felt that night at the bar soon catches fire, and Rand lets his hormones do his thinking for him. Unfortunately, Sarah has very different ideas about the origins of love. Developed under the auspices of the Sundance Institute, the film deals with some pretty heady stuff, and underscores the romance with a misty melancholy. Nicely acted by Lloyd and the talented Livingston, it poses some major questions, and is smart enough to refrain from trying to answer them. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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