Dopamine
Sundance Channel Home Entertainment | Release Date: October 10, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
11
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
What's alluring is the way the characters played by John Livingston and Sabrina Lloyd savor each other, in between their troubles. Movies are too quick to interrupt romance with sex. Sarah and Rand fascinate us with their dance of dread and desire. Read full review
80
Washington PostStephen Hunter
A lot of bigger movies won't provoke you half as much. Read full review
80
Film ThreatMerle Bertrand
Would that we could extract the essence of this utterly enjoyable film and distill its creativity, intelligence and originality into a serum which we could then inject into all the tapped-out Hollywood screenwriters and directors out there. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
That rare thing, an American romantic film that's not a comedy and that's more about love than sex. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKevin Crust
Overcomes some forced artiness to be a sweet, smart romance without being saccharine. Read full review
70
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Shakespeare asked, "Or in the heart, or in the head?" It's not a new question by any means, but it's one that is given a fresh and refreshing adult twist by Decena's heady yet steady-handed Dopamine. Read full review
63
PremierePeter Debruge
Nothing happens as you might expect it to, but the Pinocchio ending is definitely out. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneEllen Fox
The moody, distinctively San Franciscan Dopamine has other charming little touches -- its humor, its characters, its city life -- that make you want the film to succeed. It doesn't entirely; it's more likable than it is good. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Dopamine could do with a bit more of whatever hormone governs pacing, but Mr. Decena is a director with a future. He knows how to connect with his actors.
60
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
An uncommonly smart and bittersweet romantic comedy. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
There's no disguising the fact that, beneath all its talk, this is a very traditional, very predictable romance; it's sorely in need of some comic relief; and, if you're a non-smoker, you will get very tired of its heroine blowing smoke in your face. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
A melancholy romance that has the distinction of being the first film set among San Francisco dotcommers that knows it's about the end of the boom. Read full review
50
The New York TimesDave Kehr
A wan, wistful Generation Y romance. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Billed as the first film to go from conception to the big screen within the Sundance program, Dopamine is an amiably slight independent film that probably should have gone directly to the Sundance Channel. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Promises more than it delivers. Read full review
50
VarietyScott Foundas
A dweeby and unenchanting concoction as romantic comedies go, Mark Decena's debut feature also juggles enough storylines to fill five or six movies in barely 80 minutes of screen time, ending up with a whole distinctly less than the sum of its parts. Read full review
50
Village VoiceAnya Kamenetz
The premise (does modern neurochemistry debunk love?) is fresh enough, but too much would-be banter falls flat, and the story is woefully schematic. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverJean Oppenheimer
The ideas behind the story are intriguing and could prompt endless hours of lively discussion, but the film proves surprisingly drab. Read full review
40
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
The issues Decena raises rarely get treated on any but the most superficial of levels, and the flatly realized characters make it difficult to care what becomes of them. Read full review
38
New York PostMegan Lehmann
Can that achingly abstract thing called love be captured in a beaker or dissected like a frog splayed on a slab? That's the belabored premise of this dorky, clinically structured romance cooked up in the Sundance Institute's screenwriter and filmmaker labs. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy Burr
There are rich issues at play here, about the nature of attraction and whether individual will is or isn't pinned to the wheel of physiology. But Decena hasn't dramatized them; he's used them as talking points set to an indie-film guitar strum, and the result is both earnest and passionless. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
A determined romantic comedy with a theme, and damned if it won't see it through. Read full review
30
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
This feels like a movie that was grown in a petri dish -- poked and prodded with all manner of overcooked symbolism and thesis statements, but fatally absent the genuine human emotions about which it incessantly prattles on. Read full review
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