An odd little French movie (French title: Thomas est amoureux) about technology, postmodern alienation, love, and all the good things one expects French movies to be about. Thomas Thomas is a severe agoraphobe who hasn't left his apartment in eight years. He lives in the near future and interacts with the world only through his combination computer/videophone.
The most immediately noticable thing about Thomas is that we never see Thomas himself - the movie is shot entirely through his view of the screen of the videophone. Thomas has all of his needs taken care of through the remote adminstration of his benificent and seemingly omnipotent insurance company (an even more dead giveaway than the fact that all the characters speak French that this movie was not made in the States). The movie is essentially a chronicle of how Thomas' life changes after his insurance-provided psychotherapist enters him in a ludicrous computer dating club in a bid to shake his life out of its rut.
One might imagine from hearing the premise that the movie is basically one big Social Agenda laid down with the subtlety of a trowel, and backed up with one clever, but unoriginal, art-house gimmick. This is both true and not.
The agenda is there and unmistakable, but it's backed by a basic sweet humanism that ensures that the characters never devolve into the cardboard cut-outs that infest idea movies. The first person camerawork seems a bit limiting at times, but does a good job of expressing Thomas' small and narrowly-focused world.
My advice would be to catch this one if it's playing near you, or otherwise check it out sometime once it's out on video.