In the early 2000s, Nick Tosches (Oscar Isaac) is approached by a Mafia don to verify and steal Dante Alighieri’s original ‘The Divine Comedy.’ Simultaneously, 14th-century Dante (also Isaac) struggles to create his masterpiece. Unfortunately, director Julian Schnabel’s film, The Hand of Dante, falls short of expectations, lacking the profundity of his previous works like The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
The narrative shifts between timelines, portraying Tosches as a semi-fictional character involved with the Mafia, while Dante confronts his spiritual and artistic dilemmas, often in a style that feels unintentionally comedic. The film’s aesthetic is split between crisp black-and-white for modern scenes and exaggerated colors for historical sequences, yet Schnabel’s execution is praised for its pretentiousness and lack of clarity.
The casting includes multiple actors, like Gal Gadot and Gerard Butler, taking on dual roles, but the performances are criticized as mostly miscast. Martin Scorsese makes a confusing cameo as Dante’s mentor, adding to the film’s bewildering tone.
Intended as a metafictional exploration of art, the film instead becomes an overlong, boring experience. Tosches’ remark about his books not being editable could easily apply to this sprawling narrative, which struggles to achieve cohesion and ultimately feels like a catastrophe—close to, but not quite reaching, the seventh circle of hell.
