On Netflix Now: In the Hand of Dante Is a Star-Studded Drama That Fails to Make Effective Use of Oscar Isaac and the Rest of Its Cast

In the Hand of Dante is streaming on Netflix now. Star-studded yet defiantly dull, Julian Schnabel’s In the Hand of Dante crosscuts a turn-of-the-century mob saga with a Late Middle Ages tale of how Dante Alighieri came to write The Divine Comedy. The movie, which made its debut at the Venice Film Festival and is now on Netflix, is ambitious in concept, but squanders its artistic potential thanks to its languid unfurling, courtesy of a rote, observational aesthetic approach. It feels like studying poetry purely by reading someone’s academic notes rather than experiencing the verses themselves. Adapted from the 2002 novel by the late Nick Tosches, Schnabel’s movie recreates the book’s narrative conceit by positioning Tosches as its protagonist. This fictionalized version of the author, played by Oscar Isaac, is roped into a harebrained New York mob scheme to steal a literary treasure: recently-unearthed writing penned by Dante himself in the early 14th century, the only artifact of its kind. But before the lost manuscript is revealed, the story begins with Tosches regaling his friend Lefty (Louis Cancelmi) about how much he identifies with Dante and sees himself in the poet’s work.