The Belly of an Architect

Director: Peter Greenaway
Year Released: 1987
Rating: 1.0

An American architect (Brian Dennehy) goes to Rome to have an exhibition for a long-deceased architect and comes down with some stomach ailment that could be either psychosomatic or real. Meticulous from a visual standpoint (as all of Greenaway is) but terminally superficial - especially when compared to his most complex movies (A Zed and Two Noughts, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover) - as well as painfully sardonic; the sense of humor is simply not there, and without it the film merely seems to exist for itself, in itself. Dennehy puts in a good performance, but I found it difficult to get involved with any of these characters on any level whatsoever; Chloe Webb - better known as Nancy of Sid & Nancy - is simply awful as his wife.