Verity – Movie Review
Taking a genre detour from her more romantic-drama based stories, author Coleen Hoover released Verity in 2018 – an erotic psychological thriller that took BookTok by storm with its wild plot, R-rated sex scenes, and pretty confronting violence. And it’s not like sex and violence hadn’t been elements Hoover had explored before in her work, but where previously there were attempts at sincere drama, it was clear with this novel that Hoover was wanting to have a little bit of wicked fun.
Now after the immense box office success of the first three Colleen Hoover film adaptations over the last few years, Verity arrives on the silver screen at a time where erotic thrillers – a mainstay of 80s and 90s cinema – seem few and far between (or perhaps 2025s The Housemaid began the resurgence?). But with the star power of Dakota Johnson, Anne Hathaway, and Josh Hartnett, could this adaptation continue the resurgence of the forgotten genre?
Verity Crawford (Hathaway) has written a series of best-selling thriller novels all from the perspective of the villain, but a recent accident has rendered Verity absent from public life. Lowen Ashleigh (Johnson), an author whose debut novel catches the attention of Verity Crawford’s team and husband, Jeremy (Hartnett), is approached the ghost write the rest of the series, and is invited to live in with Jeremy, the bed-ridden and mute Verity, and their son, Crew, in order to go through Verity’s extensive notes and manuscripts. However, all is not as it seems within the walls of this house as Lowen makes a shocking discovery and begins to descend into a world she has always wanted to inhabit.
Verity is a decent adaptation of Hoover’s novel, condensing certain aspects in order to, as much as possible, make a lean, slick erotic thriller. The focus of the film is very much on Lowen Ashleigh and her desires to inhabit a life she thought was entirely unattainable. It’s a tale as old as time – a struggling artist (who is also grieving the recent death of her mother and battling constant eviction notices) gets to play house in a literal mansion on a lake with the hot husband of the woman she so desperately wants to be. But where the thrills enter into this film is through the idea that the woman Lowen wants to be might be haunting her every step. It’s when Lowen discovers an unpublished manuscript of Verity’s that contains some incredibly confronting revelations where the uncertainty of who to trust becomes a fun part of the mystery.
The story jumps back and forth in time, with the main story focusing on Lowen’s aforementioned plot line, and the second being Verity’s story from the manuscript about her marriage to Jeremy and her children. For the most part, the script from Nick Antosca and Michael Showalter’s direction manage to balance the back-and-forth well enough to not make the film feel too convoluted or bogged down by its structure. It’s in the second plotline where a lot of the most confronting moments happen, both sexually and violently, and compared to the novel, it does feel like the film has taken the more conservative (and honestly, lame) route in portraying these things. It’s not that explicitly showing these things makes the movie less entertaining, but because they feel like such an integral part of the story, and could work very well in favour of heightening the campy tone that naturally derives from a story like this. By holding back on those things (outside of one or two moments in a book that has multiple), the film consistently feels like it’s getting in the way of its own fun.
It does feel like the film is taking itself a little too seriously at points. Looking back at the success of The Housemaid, it can be pinpointed to the fact that a comedic director in Paul Feig leant into the camp and insanity of that premise, and wasn’t afraid to take the ridiculousness to 11, resulting in a fun time at the movies regardless of quality. Verity fails to do this despite having a traditionally comedic director at the helm in Showalter. But his direction, which at points is very visually flat and lacks dynamic flair, feels drab and lame, which in turn drains a lot of potential campy energy that could have fuelled the film.
The performances are also caught into this tonal crossfire. All three leads, each of whom basically anchor the film, are red-lining at a precipice of being able to go fully insane. Johnson is a great fit for the more initially timid Lowen, but as her character becomes more comfortable in her surroundings, living up the life she always wanted, the performance stays within that one note territory. Hartnett never fully gets to play around with the good or bad husband trope until the film’s final moments, but he is also completely fine overall. And Hathaway, who spends the majority of the film mute and stiff, is the one person who manages to play around with the tone of which this movie should have followed.
Verity is a decent adaptation of Hoover’s novel in structure, but doesn’t commit to the schlock-filled insanity that propels the story to its wild third act. There is potential here for another The Housemaid in terms of cinematic fun that isn’t afraid to push a few boundaries, but it’s unfortunately muted by its own desire to be a straightforward thriller.
Verity is in Australian cinemas October 1
