A writer is hired by the New York mob to steal a handwritten copy of Dante Aligheri's 'The Divine Comedy'.
Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Julian Schnabel
Starring: Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, John Malkovich, Louis Cancelmi, Sabrina Impacciatore, Benjamin Clementine, Martin Scorsese, Al Pacino, Jason Momoa
Nick Tosches' 2002 novel In the Hand of Dante featured a fictional version of the author hired by the mob to authenticate a handwritten manuscript of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. In 2008 Johnny Depp acquired the rights to a film adaptation. You have to wonder why Depp was so eager to star in this project, as he had practically made the same movie already a decade earlier. In the Hand of Dante is essentially an even messier version of Polanski's The Ninth Gate, in which Depp played a rare book dealer hired to authenticate a manuscript believed to have been authored by Old Nick.
In the Hand of Dante doesn't have any supernatural elements, but there is plenty of spiritual mumbo jumbo, much of it delivered by Martin Scorsese as a Jewish mystic while looking like he's playing Gandalf on SNL. Scorsese pops up in one of the film's two storylines, this one set in 14th century and following Dante (Oscar Isaac) as he embarks on a spiritual journey and seeks wisdom from the Goodfellas director, who intones his knowledge as though he were narrating a documentary on Italian Neo-Realism.
The influence of Scorsese is all over the movie's other storyline, which is filled with violent mob hits and Rolling Stones needle drops. In late '90s New York, Nick Tosches (also Isaac) is hired by mob boss Joe Black (John Malkovich) to travel to Italy and retrieve what is believed to be Dante's original manuscript for the Divine Comedy.
The modern day storyline takes up the bulk of the run time, with the flashbacks to to the past serving as little more than a distraction in a movie that crawls its way across the 2.5 hour mark. Director Julian Schnabel has opted to defy convention, presenting the late 20th century in black and white while 14th century Italy is depicted in colour. The implication is that a darkness has overtaken the modern world with its greed and avarice, but to suggest that the 1990s was a bleaker time to be alive than the 14th century is ridiculous. The characters we see in Schnabel's romanticised past are artists, theologians and scholars, the few who were privileged enough to live free of the misery of their times.
Nick's quest is presented as a violent neo-noir thriller, but it is so clunkily plotted and ham-fisted in its presentation of casual violence that it makes The Boondock Saints look like a classic of the genre. Sporting a horrendous wig and even worse accent, Gerard Butler plays mob hitman Louie. The character might be the most evil figure you'll see on screen this year, but the movie plays his violent nihilism for laughs. A scene involving his degradation and execution of a victim is shockingly disturbing in its mean-spiritedness, but the film never reckons with the sort of lines it crosses with this character. Despite this, Butler's hammy performance is probably the movie's highlight - you at least take notice of him.
Everyone else (bar a cameoing Al Pacino) sleepwalks through the film. Schnabel has cast this arthouse production with actors better known for playing superheroes, resulting in some laughably bad performances from the likes of Gal Gadot and Jason Momoa. The Wonder Woman star plays Nick's love interest, but their scenes together are devoid of passion, such is the absence of chemistry between Isaac and Gadot.
Even at its excessive running time, In the Hand of Dante plays like a film that has been badly chopped up in the editing room. Details are introduced that lead nowhere, like Nick's daughter being murdered by an unknown assailant whom we assume is Louis, a thread the movie never subsequently follows.
With a respected filmmaker at the helm and an all-star cast, In the Hand of Dante is the sort of movie you might expect Netflix to put forward in awards season. Its unceremonious dumping on their platform at a time when the public is distracted by the World Cup speaks volumes. There is nothing divine about this mess.
In the Hand of Dante is on Netflix from June 24th.
