Thomas in Love

A futuristic cyber-flick about a French agoraphobe who interacts with the outside world only through his highly interactive computer, Thomas in Love will be seen by many as nothing but a gimmick, since the whole picture is shot as if the movie screen were Thomas's monitor. In fact, the main character never appears on camera--we only hear his voice (Benoit Verhaert) as he surfs the electronic ether for a woman willing to have a "visiophone" relationship with a man she can never meet in person. Unstable Thomas gets more than he bargained for, however, including heartbreak and challenges to his way of life from a web-order prostitute he fixates upon. Using the movie screen as Thomas's computer screen is merely a way to turn two rapidly merging mediums--film and the Internet--on their respective ears, but to focus on that aspect alone is to ultimately miss the larger point: this is a provocative and unexpectedly warm character study, a seriocomic meditation on the future of our society, and a stimulating and surprisingly satisfying cinematic experiment. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include a 20-minute subtitled “making-of” featurette, a three-minute behind-the-scenes segment on constructing the animated sequences, a brief text bio of director Pierre-Paul Renders, and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for an interesting film.] (R. Blackwelder)