Stourley Kracklite (Dennehy), an American architect from Chicago, travels to Rome for 9 months to prepare an exhibition on his favorite historic architect, the 18th-century French visionary Etienne-Louis Boullee. On the train to Rome, Kracklite and his younger wife Louisa (Webb) have sex and conceive a child after she has already had several miscarriages. Once in the Eternal City, however, Kracklite starts to experience severe stomach cramps while Louisa flirts with Caspasian Speckler (Wilson), a dashing young architect in charge of the financing for the exhibition. Kracklite becomes obsessed with his belly and expresses this obsession in various ways. Is his wife trying to poison him? Is he "pregnant" in competition with her or with the show? This 1987 movie written and directed by Peter Greenaway has a more "conventional" plot than much of his better-known work. It's beautifully shot and magnificently acted by the underappreciated Dennehy in a difficult role, but a viewer who is not a Greenaway fan might find all the dripping symbolism and basic story rather dreary.
Click here to see the rest of this review...
The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus
