Certificate: 15

Running Time: 153 mins

UK Distributor: Netflix

UK Release Date: 24 June 2026

WHO’S IN IN THE HAND OF DANTE?

Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, John Malkovich, Martin Scorsese, Al Pacino, Jason Momoa, Louis Cancelmi, Sabrina Impacciatore, Franco Nero, Benjamin Clémentine, Paolo Bonacelli, Lorenzo Zurzolo, Claudio Santamaria, Guido Caprino, Mohamed Zouaoui, Alessandro De Simone, Lolita Chamah, Howard Thomas Ray, Duke Nicholson, Vincenzo Leto, Galen Hopper

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Julian Schnabel (director, writer), Louise Kugelberg (writer, editor), Jon Kilik, Francesco Melzi d’Erli, Gabriele Bebe Moratti, Olmo Schnabel and Vito Schnabel (producers), Benjamin Clémentine (composer), Roman Vasyanov (cinematographer), Marco Spoletini (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A writer (Isaac) is drawn into a heist involving an original manuscript by historical poet Dante Alighieri (also Isaac)…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON IN THE HAND OF DANTE?

Dante Alighieri’s 14th century poem The Divine Comedy is a fascinating piece of literature. An epic ascent through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven (in that order), it is often considered to be the basis for our present understanding of the afterlife, in addition to being one of the most influential epic poems of all time.

Filmmaker Julian Schnabel’s In the Hand of Dante, on the other hand, is fascinating in a completely different sense. In nearly every aspect, the film – an adaptation of novelist Nick Tosches’ book of the same name, itself loosely inspired by Dante’s work – is an absolute trainwreck, filled with baffling creative decisions and an egregious sense of pomposity, not helped by its punishingly slow pace as well as a near-complete lack of primary focus. Yet, it is the kind of trainwreck that you can’t help but stare at, primarily for how uniquely bad and carnage-heavy it is, but also for how you can just about see the ways in which this could have been a fairly decent movie, if Schnabel and co-writer Louise Kugelberg had paid more attention to the few things about it that actually work.

Instead, the whole thing is an utter mess. But it is, unlike some other ambitious cinematic failures, not entirely without one or two bright spots.

As in the novel, the film is separated into two time periods, one shot in black-and-white and the other in colour. The latter is applied to the one that takes place in 14th century Italy, where Dante Alighieri himself (Oscar Isaac) goes through the trials of actually conceiving and eventually writing his magnum opus. But it is the black-and-white section that is given the lion’s share of attention, as it takes place in the early 21st century with Isaac also playing Tosches – yes, it’s one of those stories where the author of the book is a self-inserted fictionalised protagonist, as was the case in the original novel – who here is depicted as a Dante expert that is recruited by New York mob boss Joe Black (John Malkovich) to retrieve and authenticate a recently uncovered manuscript of Dante’s work, which could be priceless if it turns out to be the real deal. Reluctantly accompanied on his mission by repugnant mobster Louie (Gerard Butler), Nick’s mission takes a turn when he meets and falls for a woman named Giulietta (Gal Gadot) while also crossing paths with vengeful Italian mafioso Rosario (Jason Momoa, dressed head to toe in a white suit that makes him feel like he wandered in from the set of a Miami Vice reboot).

I’ll admit, combining a fairly straightforward Dante biopic with a historically-themed heist plot that sounds on paper like a rejected National Treasure sequel mixed with an AI-generated summary of The Sopranos is an idea that takes real creative ambition, regardless of the eventual results. However, Schnabel completely fumbles the fusing by making neither component particularly interesting, with the in-colour Dante sequences providing little (if any) insight into who Dante actually was as a person or even what compelled him to ultimately jot down The Divine Comedy, and the more prominent black-and-white crime noir constantly sputtering in both pace and narrative credibility.

In the case of the former, the lack of understanding with Dante is further stifled by some noticeably cheap production and costume designs, baffling casting choices – for instance, Butler similarly does double-duty as the eloquently spoken Pope Boniface VIII, the actor’s thick Scottish accent always seeping out in ways that make his singular scene unintentionally funny – and Schnabel’s overly vivid dreamlike filmmaking style that can be best described as a more focused Terrence Malick. Although, there is an amusing cameo from executive producer Martin Scorsese that, despite the fact that he’s dressed to look all too noticeably like Albus Dumbledore, provides this section with some much-needed levity (side note: how is this the third movie I’ve seen in as many months to feature what is essentially an extended cameo by the great director? Not complaining because it’s cool to see him act, but if I had a penny for each instance… I’d have three pennies, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it’s happened thrice).

As for the latter section, this dull crime caper is filled with odd non-sequiturs that further drag out the runtime, including a prologue sequence featuring Al Pacino that details an unusual crime that never comes back into play, nor is an out-of-nowhere reminiscence about the main character’s daughter who suddenly ends up murdered and is hardly mentioned again. That doesn’t even factor in the overly descriptive dialogue, to the point of sheer incomprehension, and performances that range from knowingly and sometimes enjoyably campy (Gerard Butler just about steals the show as arguably the most entertaining character) to just plain wooden (I don’t even have to mention their name, because most of you already know who I’m talking about). All of that, and then some, turns what should have been an intriguing heist romp into a pretentious slog where it feels like you’re experiencing a particularly testing version of Dante’s infamous Inferno.

But for all its deep and sometimes inexcusable faults, In the Hand of Dante is at least pretty to look at. Roman Vasyanov’s cinematography does a lot of the heavy lifting in scenes where you have no idea what’s going on, and as overly artsy as Schnabel’s direction may often feel, it is still visually compelling enough to keep you at the very least faintly interested as to where certain plot points are going. Of course, none of that is enough to save the movie, which is certainly bad but in that “well, at least they tried” kind of way, the type where you can appreciate the noble ambition despite the clumsy execution.

Although in some cases, to use the title of Dante’s defining work, it is a very different and wholly unintentional kind of divine comedy.

SO, TO SUM UP…

In the Hand of Dante is a well-shot but ultimately disastrous blend of straightforward yet uninteresting historical biopic and preposterous, incomprehensible and often unintentionally humorous crime caper.

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