Critic's Notebook

Alex Majoli

“In the Hand of Dante” emerges as the most controversial selection at Venice International Film Festival. In and of itself, it is not the least bit offensive, but thousands of Palestine supporters took to the streets on Aug. 30 in Lido, the island where all festivities are based. It’s no surprise that 1,500 industry types petitioned to ban the film’s Israeli star, Gal Gadot. Though she has ultimately skipped the world premiere, “In the Hand of Dante” is still catching heat in the press due to director-cowriter Julian Schnabel’s defense of his star.

It’s too bad. On paper, the film is the one I’ve been looking forward to the most in this year’s Biennale Cinema lineup. It’s the first work from my favorite writer, Nick Tosches, to be successfully brought to the big screen. (About two decades ago, Martin Scorsese abandoned Nicholas Pileggi’s adaptation of Tosches’s nonfiction Dean Martin biography, “Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams.”) I also took a class dedicated to Dante Alighieri’s epic “Divine Comedy” during undergrad. Suffice it to say, I know the material well.

Tosches’s “In the Hand of Dante” featured two intertwined narratives, and Mr. Schnabel’s interpretation remains pretty faithful to the source material. In the 14th century, Dante (Oscar Isaac) travels to Sicily to seek enlightenment from Isaiah (Mr. Scorsese of all people) in order to complete his long-gestating “Paradiso.” In the 21st century, a fictionalized (or, then again, maybe not) Nick (also Mr. Isaac), is recruited by crime boss Joe Black (John Malkovich) to help steal and authenticate what purports to be Dante’s hand-written manuscript of “Divine Comedy.”

The filmmaker does give the story an interesting spin by casting some of the same actors in both timelines. In addition to Mr. Isaac, there’s Ms. Gadot as both Dante’s muse, Gemma, and Nick’s assistant, Giulietta; Gerard Butler as Pope Bonifacio VIII, featured in “Inferno,” and also as Nick’s assigned partner in crime, Louie Brunellesches; and Louis Cancelmi as Dante’s host, Guido II da Polenta, and as Joe Black’s underling Lefty. These choices evoke a sense of reincarnation.

Mr. Schnabel’s painter background informs a clear artistic vision, though some of his directorial choices seem questionable. The 14th century timeline is presented in color and Academy ratio. Inexplicably, the 21st century is represented in monochromatic Golden ratio.

Roman Vasyanov’s cinematography feels too precious, unable to convey the grittiness and dark humor in Tosches’s work. For instance, there’s a healthy serving of wise guy braggadocio – or, simply, bullshitting – like Nick claiming he murdered a neighborhood kid with a knife when he was six. Trust me, this should be way funnier than the film’s deadpan approach yields. It seems like Mr. Schnabel has never spent much time around neighborhood guys.

Same goes for Louie busting a bartender’s balls with profane insults and whacking every expert Nick enlists to help verify the manuscript, and Nick narrating mob boss Don Lecco’s (Lorenzo Zurzolo) over-the-top origin story. The film misses the opportunity to mine a ton of comedy gold from the novel. Nick’s tempestuous relationship with his editor should also be played out. I have tremendous respect for Mr. Schnabel, but this is not even close to the way I’ve visualized “In the Hand of Dante.”