When do you surrender to a work that knows exactly how shallow and gawdy its premise is? Director Michael Showalter makes it fairly easy with the trash-tastic Verity, a film that embraces its own ridiculous melodrama early on. The latest in a growing line of Colleen Hoover adaptations, including It Ends with Us, Regretting You, and Reminders of Him, the star-studded thriller about two authors caught in a precarious entanglement is funny in all the wrong ways. And you know what? That might not be a bad thing.
Despite a bloated runtime and several wildly illogical narrative choices, Anne Hathaway closes her five-film year with a soapy, self-aware erotic thriller that is surprisingly entertaining. It may not be a conventionally ‘good’ movie, but it knows exactly what kind of superficiality it’s working with. It begins with Hathaway’s Verity Crawford looking into the camera and calling her career a ‘miracle’ before cutting to the title—that’s when I immediately knew exactly what kind of delectable garbage the audience was in for.
Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson) is a writer in New York who is struggling to find her audience and promote her work. Out of the blue, she is contacted by an agent of Verity Crawford, a bestselling thriller author hilariously introduced to the audience through her interview appearances on Call Her Daddy and Hot Ones. Due to a suspect car accident, Verity can no longer write, leaving her husband Jeremy (Josh Hartnett) to figure out how to solve the problem of her latest book series. Upon discovering that her talents are similar in style to Verity’s, Lowen is summoned to a writers’ meeting.
Take the melodrama of Adrian Lyne’s Unfaithful, where two lovers meet via a literal gust of wind, and swap it for a meet-cute of bloody proportions. Lowen is rushing to the meeting when she witnesses a tragic road accident, one that splashes blood all over her face and clothes. Luckily for her, an attractive bystander rushes in to help. As he helps Lowen clean up in a nearby bathroom, they bond over their experiences with death. It turns out that the bystander is none other than Jeremy, who offers Lowen the opportunity to ghostwrite Verity’s next novel.
Lowen accepts the lucrative offer and drives down to Verity and Jeremy’s home in Vermont. When she arrives, she meets Jeremy’s adorable son Crew (Brady Wagner) and quickly discovers that Verity is catatonic. As she battles her desire for Jeremy, a house full of secrets, and a strange manuscript that raises many dangerous questions about Verity, Lowen is forced to question both herself and the situation she’s found herself in. Adapted into a screenplay by Nick Antosca, it’s an engaging if imperfect romp that explores just how unstable the aptly titled truth can be.
Josh Hartnett plays Jeremy as a handsome yet tragic and sympathetic family man, he’s grieving Crew’s twin sister Harper who recently drowned in the lake. Dakota Johnson really leans into her one-note reactions and monotone speaking voice—one scene even has Lowen acknowledging that she has “resting bored face.” It’s not hard to guess that Lowen is priming herself to replace Verity as mother, wife, and writer—a trajectory that won’t be difficult to critique as mean at best and misogynistic at worst.
Anne Hathaway utterly commits to the role despite being catatonic for most of the runtime. Verity’s life is mostly told through flashbacks—Hathaway ensures that the film’s sensational tone is amplified in every scene. It’s a shame all three actors don’t lean further into the eroticism the film teases you with, as a few scenes feel overly sanitised and contrived.
Michael Showalter really knows the visual sensibilities of the erotic thriller genre. Featuring Brian De Palma type split diopter shots, crossfades, crazed zoom-ins, wipe transitions, and countless overlays, this is truly some expensive-looking, well-shot nonsense. The cinematography by Jim Frohna and editing by Jay Cassidy is just as hammed-up as Verity’s campy approach, featuring a few ludicrous jump scares and plot reveals that will leave audiences equal parts amused and shocked.
The central drama mostly takes place in a remote, cabin-fitted mansion in rural Vermont, a location that production designer Amy Williams utilises to mildly chilling effect. With secret hideaways, labyrinthine hallways, and jagged-edged roofs, the setting creates a cozy sense of isolating unease. The film benefits from mostly keeping the narrative centred in one place with a limited cast. You’re there to watch A-listers work with B-movie material.
The more Verity goes on, the more it stretches its already thin and logic-breaking premise. However, there is a certain glee in watching these increasingly outrageous events unfold. The film needed to be a lot sexier and a lot tighter, but this just might be one of the best unintentional comedies you watch this year. Thanks to a refreshing self-awareness from the cast and crew, Verity is a knowingly silly film that takes pride in all its absurdities.
Director: Michael Showalter
Cast: Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, Josh Hartnett, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Brady Wagner
Writer: Nick Antosca, based on the book by Colleen Hoover
Producers: Nick Antosca, Alex Hedlund, Stacey Sher, Michael Showalter, Jordana Mollick, Anne Hathaway, Colleen Hoover
Composer: Volker Bertelmann
Cinematographer: Jim Frohna
Editor: Jay Cassidy