Once every few years, a bloated passion project comes along that makes you wonder, who could have possibly thought this was a good idea? How could this be the best version of this story? One year after Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis disaster comes Julian Schnabel’s In the Hand of Dante (2025), a film that is mortally tangled between painful earnestness and laughable execution. No amount of star power would ever be enough to save a project of this kind of bewildering nature, especially when these big names turn in career-worst performances. Believe it not, but for some of these recognizable actors, it’s a new low.
Weaving back and forth between the 21st and 14th centuries, In the Hand of Dante is adapted from the 2002 book of the same name by author Nick Tosches, one of two characters played by Oscar Isaac (Frankenstein, Moon Knight) in name. Director Julian Schnabel, who has helmed such acclaimed works as At Eternity’s Gate (2018), The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007), and Basquiat (1996), has been attached to this movie adaptation for well over a decade, making the end result more unbelievable. In the Hand of Dante attempts to operate as a cross between a genuine New York mobster flick and historical epic, but the end result plays out like the unintentional parody of a tedious period drama.
A Violent Quest for Dante’s The Divine Comedy
Nick (Isaac) is enamored by the work of legendary Italian writer Dante Alighieri, best known for his narrative poem “Inferno” from a larger body of work titled The Divine Comedy (La Divina Commedia), wherein he defines the nine circles of hell. Due to his expertise, Nick gets roped into a plot incited by mafia don Joe Black (John Malkovich) to obtain and sell the original manuscript of The Divine Comedy, written in the poet’s own hand, which was thought to be lost. Alongside the mobster assassin, Louie (Gerard Butler), the pair journeys to Italy, leaving a trail of bodies behind in search of Dante’s priceless work.
Nick’s very existence starts to mirror the life of the iconic poet whose work he is tasked with stealing, blurring the line between his own reality and history itself. Now, this sounds like an interesting premise for what is ultimately supposed to be an intellectual m drama. In actuality, it’s far from it. On the pages of its script and through its performances, In the Hand of Dante spends more time trying to insinuate its false sense of profoundness instead of verily demonstrating and earning it.
The feeling that can be sensed, as this mess unfolds on screen, is that the film’s concept alone deserves respect. That sentiment doesn’t end with Oscar Isaac’s questionable dual performances, as Nick in the present and as Dante Alighieri himself in the past. It’s a career move that feels out of character for the otherwise trustworthy actor.
An Extremely Rare Case Where Everyone is Miscast
The movie’s pretentiousness extends to Gerard Butler’s internally homophobic hitman and the son of an Italian mob boss portrayed by Jason Momoa (A Minecraft Movie). Not to mention that in her dual role, playing Nick’s love interest Giulietta and Dante Alighieri’s wife Gemma Donati, Gal Gadot (Snow White) somehow manages to deliver line readings that are even more abominable than those she is already renowned for. Somehow, they also managed to get filmmaker Martin Scorsese to appear and do nothing more than sit in a chair, practically reading off a page, as Alighieri’s mentor, Isaiah. It’s practically impossible to miscast every single role in any movie, and yet, In the Hand of Dante manages to tick that box too.
No manner of patience is given to Nick, Dante, or anyone, really, for that matter. To effectively draw from their parallel lives across 700 years requires a degree of subtlety and attentiveness that is never afforded, particularly when both are written in the vein of heinous caricatures. Even equipped with a lengthy runtime of 155 minutes, there is nothing done to delve into the realities faced by either of Oscar Isaac’s roles, leaving anything the film is trying to attempt hollow at best.
In the Hand of Dante Is Often Laughable, But Not in a Redeeming Way
The script fails to give viewers Nick’s true motives and temperament beyond ideas that are discarded nearly as quickly as they are raised, such as the revelation that he killed a bully of his when he was a kid or the fact that he had a daughter who was murdered. Things that could have informed the motives of the characters either make little to no sense or are entirely overlooked. In the Hand of Dante doesn’t favor any form of engaging storytelling, ambitious or not; it favors unwarranted violence, inflammatory obscenities, and a sudden whirlwind romance that contains not a single ounce of genuine chemistry or rhyme or reason to root for.
For audiences to be in bouts of laughter at what is meant to be the completely serious showdown and momentous climax of the film, it’s clear that something is fundamentally wrong. In the Hand of Dante, as it stands in its final form, is rotten from whatever promising foundations were laid by director Julian Schnabel years ago. While this specific scene is the most entertaining of what is otherwise a chore to sit through, this is nothing to cheer for or make a cult following out of. It exemplifies this project’s greatest failures: its overcompetence in craft, prose, and interpretation, resulting in nothing more than a hot, steaming mess.
In the Hand of Dante premiered at the 2025 Venice Film Festival!
Release Date: TBD.
Directed by Julian Schnabel.
Screenplay by Julian Schnabel & Louise Kugelberg.
Based on In the Hand of Dante by Nick Tosches.
Produced by Gabriele Bebe Moratti, Jon Kilik, Robert K. MacLean, Francesco Melzi d’Eril, Olmo Schnabel, & Vito Schnabel.
Executive Producers: Oscar Isaac, Martin Scorsese, Drake, Luke Daniels, Moises Agami, Moises Agami, Charles M. Barsamian, Matthew Budman, Moises Chiver, Gregory P. Cimino II, Galen Core, Svetlana Migunova-Dali, Konstantin Elkin, Tatiana Emden, Simon Fawcett, Ralph Haiek, Matt Hartley, Gena Konstantinakos, Arno Krimmer, Paula P. Manzanedo, Alexander Naas, Michael Paletta, Garrett Patten, Patricio Rabuffetti, Jeff Rice, Leon Salame, Jason Shrier, Arun Thapar, & Joyce Zylberberg.
Main Cast: Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, John Malkovich, Louis Cancelmi, Sabrina Impacciatore, Franco Nero, Benjamin Clementine, Paolo Bonacelli, Paolo Bonacelli, Lorenzo Zurzolo, Martin Scorsese, Al Pacino, Jason Momoa, Claudio Santamaria, Guido Caprino, Mohamed Zouaoui, Alessandro De Simone, Lolita Chamah, Howard Thomas, Duke Nicholson, Vincenzo Leto, & Galen Hopper.
Cinematographer: Roman Vasyanov.
Composer: Benjamin Clementine.
Production Companies: DreamCrew Entertainment, Rahway Road Productions, World Vision, Green Dragon, Indiana Productions, ArtOfficial Productions, Exemplary Films Corporation/Valor Capital, Infinitum Nihil, Intromagine Pictures, Mad Gene Media, MeMo Films, Screen Capital, Tribune Pictures, Tucci & Company, & Twin Pictures.
Runtime: 153 minutes.
