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Based on Colleen Hoover’s 2018 novel, Verity follows struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson), who is hired to complete the unfinished books of bestselling author Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway) after a car accident leaves her in a catatonic state.
While sorting through Verity’s notes at the Crawford family home, Lowen discovers a disturbing autobiographical manuscript detailing the writer’s marriage, motherhood and darkest thoughts.
What begins as a ghostwriting job soon turns into a tangled web of attraction, suspicion and increasingly questionable decisions. The result is a thriller that is not always convincing, but is rarely boring.
Gothic house of secrets
Much of Verity takes place inside the Crawford family’s secluded Vermont home and the setting does some of the heavy lifting.
With its imposing architecture, mirrors, glass and dark interiors surrounded by snowy wilderness, the house feels less like a home than a beautifully decorated trap. Its isolation gives the film a classic gothic quality, while the polished production design adds to the heightened and slightly unreal atmosphere.
The house also becomes an extension of the story. The further Lowen ventures into the family’s private world, the more claustrophobic the surroundings begin to feel.
The visual confidence helps compensate for some of the film’s weaker writing. Verity is undeniably good-looking, with cinematography that knows how to make even its more outrageous moments feel suitably dramatic.
Slow to start
The film takes its time settling into its mystery.
The opening establishes Lowen’s circumstances, her introduction to Jeremy Crawford (Josh Hartnett) and her uneasy arrival at the family home but it does not immediately have the urgency expected from a conventional thriller.
Once Lowen discovers Verity’s manuscript, however, the film becomes considerably more engrossing.
Part of the appeal is watching Lowen become fascinated not only by Jeremy, but by Verity herself. She is intrigued by the famous author’s career, wealth and life, gradually slipping deeper into a world that does not belong to her.
As she starts occupying Verity’s office, wearing her clothes and becoming increasingly embedded in the household, the line between admiration, envy and attraction begins to blur.
That gives the story a more interesting psychological layer than simply asking whether Verity is evil. Lowen is not merely investigating her. She is becoming fascinated by her.
Obsession worth questioning
This is also where Verity dips its toes into uncomfortable category.
Lowen’s attraction to Jeremy develops alongside her growing fixation on Verity, creating a strange triangle in which desire, jealousy and imitation feed into one another.
There is an understandable reason for Lowen to become so consumed. She is grieving, financially struggling and suddenly thrust into the glamorous but deeply dysfunctional world of a bestselling author. Jeremy offers intimacy and stability, while Verity represents a level of success and confidence that Lowen has yet to attain.
Still, understanding obsession does not necessarily make it romantic.
The film occasionally flirts with presenting fixation as seductive, particularly as Lowen becomes increasingly willing to cross boundaries.
That makes her compelling to watch, but it also raises the question of whether the film is examining unhealthy attachment or simply using it as another source of erotic tension.
Too serious to be camp, too camp to be serious
Verity seems caught between two identities.
On one side is a psychological thriller built around unreliable narration, manipulation and the question of what constitutes the truth.
On the other is a glossy erotic thriller filled with heightened romance, exaggerated performances and increasingly outrageous developments.
That tension can be entertaining, but it is not always controlled.
The film occasionally asks viewers to take its psychological stakes seriously before undercutting them with another melodramatic turn. As a result, a scene that feels genuinely sinister can quickly give way to something almost campy.
That inconsistency may frustrate some viewers, although it also gives Verity much of its strange charm.
Verdict
The plot is undeniably wild.
Verity’s manuscript appears to expose one version of her life, only for another explanation to complicate almost everything that came before it.
The question of whether she genuinely wrote the material or invented it as part of her fiction becomes central to the mystery, while Lowen’s growing involvement in the family makes it increasingly difficult to see her as a neutral observer.
Verity is not especially frightening, and its psychological material is not always as deep as it wants to be. But a thriller does not necessarily need to inspire fear to be effective.
Here, the suspense comes from watching characters make increasingly questionable choices and waiting to see which version of the story will eventually fall apart.
The film’s obsession with truth may be taken seriously, but its melodrama is best enjoyed with some distance. It does not always know whether it wants to be a smart psychological thriller or a trashy erotic one.
Perhaps that does not matter.
The twists are crazy, the performances are committed and the story becomes increasingly unhinged. Verity may not be a great thriller, but once it gets into its middle act, it becomes surprisingly difficult to look away.
For all its flaws, it does what a thriller is meant to do: keep viewers thrilled.
Director: Michael Showalter
Cast: Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, Josh Hartnett, Brady Wagner
E-value: 7/10
Plot: 7/10
Acting: 7/10
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