"In the Hand of Dante" is a lukewarm mess

In the Hand of Dante might be a hot mess if it weren't as pretentious as it is. There's nothing wrong with a heist movie—it's a perfectly respectable genre. Why attach a biopic of Italian poet Dante Alighieri that stops the action dead in its tracks every 10 minutes and adds at least one hour to the 2½ hour running time? Because the object of the heist is the manuscript of Dante's Divine Comedy, which doesn't exist, even in the Vatican Library? Surely Julian Schnabel doesn't have to prove that he's an intellectual heavyweight. And if the source novel by Nick Tosches follows that structure, then Schnabel should have gotten rid of it. 

But he didn't, and the film suffers for it. Also worth mentioning is the steady string of murders that begins in the first 10 minutes and continues relentlessly until the next-to-last scene. There are at least 10 and most are gratuitous. Again, faithfulness to the novel doesn't win points. It slows the movie down. Not content with having half the characters and a dog get shot, Schnabel threw in a leisurely torture scene, which after all the shootings was a change of pace. Not to worry, there are one or two more to conclude the plot.

Schnabel assembled a notable cast, led by Oscar Isaac as Nick/Dante with a cameo from Al Pacino and a supporting actor appearance by Martin Scorsese in an Old Testament beard and wig, spouting metaphysical nonsense. John Malkovich is the heist's ringleader and Jason Momoa is the man with a claim to the manuscript.

Seen at the 2026 Tribeca Festival. The ½ star is for Martin Scorsese's beard.