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In The Hand Of Dante

Play trailer 2:36 Poster for In The Hand Of Dante R Jun 2026 2h 33m Drama Crime Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
29% Tomatometer 55 Reviews 42% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
In the Hand of Dante follows the parallel lives of a New York author (Nick Tosches) in the 21st century who embarks on a violent journey after he is recruited by a mafia don to steal Italian poet Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy written in the poet's own hand, and Dante in the 14th century seeking inspiration to write his most important work -- each man unknowingly connected through time and their obsessive quest for love, beauty, and the divine.
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In The Hand Of Dante

In The Hand Of Dante

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Critics Consensus

In the Hand of Dante is a bloated, wildly overplayed literary fever dream whose attempts to merge past and present collapse into accidental farce.

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Critics Reviews

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Odie Henderson Boston Globe Jun 27
1/4
expected a bonkers romp through the arts and literature. Instead, I was fed a cold porridge of pretention that spends 150 interminable minutes hopping through time while switching between black and white and color cinematography. Go to Full Review
Kevin Maher The Times (UK) Jun 26
4/5
Isaac is magnetic in the central role but is outdone by the transformative Butler. Go to Full Review
Laura Miller Slate Jun 26
By the time the movie resorts to a dream sequence in which Gadot appears naked on a clamshell hovering over the ocean à la Botticelli’s Venus, the entire film has become so silly that the only thing to do between yawns is laugh. Go to Full Review
Armond White National Review Jul 15
Schnabel has made a minor film about grandeur, the product of an era shaken from its cultural foundations. Go to Full Review
Maxance Vincent InSession Film Jul 10
D-
A star-studded disaster. Go to Full Review
Jennifer Green Common Sense Media Jul 7
3/5
This time-traveling adaptation of a cerebral novel gets bogged down by its own ambition. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Eddie E @eddie1949 3h Beautifully filmed. Much too long. Too many killings that deprive the Dante segments of deep meaning. But nice to see before a trip to Italy. See more Eames A @EamesAgu 1d You have to be a fan of Schnabel to take this Gonzo ride. The movie is an art piece. Oscar Isaac is good, and Gerard Butler is too but some other casting is too distracting. You don’t get enough about why Dante it’s important. With Van Gogh it’s obvious but Dante is a harder subject. So the story is more about the modern journalist and art vs commerce issues. Reminds me of a highbrow da Vinci code. Could get some editing to cut it down a bit See more Marela A @RT53598420 1d If this was a satire, or even a half-parody, IT ALL WOULD MAKE SENSE. Instead, the punchline never comes. You’re just sitting there watching and waiting… then "Ohh. They’re serious." Not good serious. Not even "aimed high and missed with dignity" serious. This is like Scorsese does gonzo Romeo & Juliet, Hunter S. Thompson mainlined a LOTR meta fictional fever dream, they handed it off to Refn to "Save us!" — but Refn dies halfway through the first week, and nobody bothered to tell the crew. Camera keeps rolling and 153 minutes later you’re left with dumpster dialog Elf Scorsese and Easter-Disco-Pimp Aquaman. Unironically, it’s just that. See more Kyle M @RT77296778 3d Visually splendid with a reliable cast but their performances instead signal how hollow the story is when stretched thin due to lack of desired focus in attempted parallels of existentially poetic literature that’s merely bland with written highlights being ineffectively delivered passages. (C) See more jwcdood T @jwcdood 4d IN THE HAND OF DANTE is a great idea that became more than a tad bloated with its own idea of itself. The direction, casting and acting was terrific. However, the screenplay bogs down under its own bloated weight so badly that any recovery is practically impossible. The director and editors probably thankfully checked themselves into a full year recovery clinic after they finished filming and editing. And, the producers may have filed for bankruptcy! See more claimre L @Claire3223 Jul 16 It felt like a vanity project See more Read all reviews
In The Hand Of Dante

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Movie Info

Synopsis In the Hand of Dante follows the parallel lives of a New York author (Nick Tosches) in the 21st century who embarks on a violent journey after he is recruited by a mafia don to steal Italian poet Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy written in the poet's own hand, and Dante in the 14th century seeking inspiration to write his most important work -- each man unknowingly connected through time and their obsessive quest for love, beauty, and the divine.
Director
Julian Schnabel
Producer
Jon Kilik, Francesco Melzi d'Eril, Gabriele Bebe Moratti, Olmo Schnabel, Vito Schnabel
Screenwriter
Julian Schnabel, Louise Kugelberg
Distributor
Netflix
Production Co
Dreamcrew, Intromagine Pictures, Exemplary Films Corporation
Rating
R (Language|Violence|Sexual References)
Genre
Drama, Crime, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Jun 12, 2026, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Jun 24, 2026
Runtime
2h 33m
Aspect Ratio
Flat (1.85:1)