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Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
DOPAMINE
Dopamine, a natural chemical, is a pleasure drug the brain produces during courtship,
according to Rand, a twenty-something software developer (played by Livingston, who with his round, slightly less
attractive face, is the poor girl's Ben Affleck). Rand first lays eyes on Sarah (Lloyd) in a smoky
bar while he's out on the town with his friend and confident coworker Winston (Campos),
and soon the chemicals start kicking in. She's a pretty kindergarten school teacher, like a
button-nosed Ali MacGraw, whose classroom, coincidentally, is being used to test Rand's
animated computer pet-in-development, the cloying Koy Koy. Their relationship is off to
a rocky start, however, when she stops to ask, "What are you feeling" just as they are
making out. She wants him to be in love before she commits to him. "What puts us above
the level of being animals? It's not love?" she asks. Later, testing his sincerity, she
challenges, "Aren't I a chemical reaction that will run out on you someday?" Rand, in
turn, peppers his conversation with such observations as, "Feelings are limited resources.
You got to use them sparingly." Yet, Sarah is hypocritically
unapologetic about her one night stand with Winston, a secret she hides from Rand.
Nevertheless, she judges him for being tentative, even though he's honest. To justify his
fear and Sarah's neediness, the writers supply both with maudlin backstories. Hers is
straight out of the creaky Stella Dallas. And all ambiguity in their relationship is
dispelled in a too tidy ending. Throughout Dopamine, it's all talk and very little
action. And unfortunately, most of the talk consists of thesis statements disguised as
dialogue. Kent Turner
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