Verity (2026)

Check out my full review @ https://www.manuelsbento.com/verity-2026-a-stellar-trio-cant-rescue-a-formulaic-thriller/

Rating: C

VERITY has a trio of terrific performances, with Anne Hathaway operating a league above everyone else, but it never gives them a thriller worth their talent. The commitment to melodrama is admirable, yet the twists are so familiar that I felt like I was rewatching any other Colleen Hoover adaptation. The tension never really arrives, the trashy/sexy elements are lackluster, and scenes stall for padding before ending exactly where they were headed. Muted, predictable, and struggling to justify its runtime for what it delivers, this one didn't convince me.

A movie that bills itself as more than it turns out to be has got to be guilty of one of the most egregious sins in filmmaking, and director Michael Showalter’s screen adaptation of this best-selling novel by author Colleen Hoover qualifies on virtually all fronts. Although touted as a dark, erotic psychological thriller, this offering is none of those things. In fact, it barely passes as fare that one might find on the Lifetime cable TV network. When famed novelist Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway) is severely injured in a car accident, her publisher (K.K. Moggie) looks to hire a ghostwriter to stand in for her to finish several titles in her current book series while (or if) she recovers. Crawford’s husband, Jeremy (Josh Hartnett), recommends the job go to a struggling, little-known aspiring writer, Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson), whom he inexplicably believes is best capable of mimicking his wife’s prosaic style. Although somewhat intimidated at the prospect of this offer, Lowen nevertheless accepts it and relocates from New York to the Crawfords’ Vermont home, where she has access to the novelist’s extensive notes and research materials. But, once there, the clueless stand-in finds herself embroiled in a scenario full of mysteries, confessions and intrigue involving the Crawfords’ personal and professional lives. What’s more, she unwittingly becomes involved in matters of infidelity (lukewarm though it may be), solving the conundrum of Verity’s true health status, and getting to the bottom of the allegedly accidental drowning of her young daughter (Sienna Kulovitz), a mystery shrouded in details as murky as the lake where it happened. These circumstances also prompt the emergence of new ambitions by all concerned, even if they frequently come out of left field. Potentially speaking, there should have been enough to work with here to make for a steamy noir-esque potboiler or, in the alternative, a deliciously campy romp. Regrettably, though, it’s neither of those things. On the contrary, “Verity” is boring, implausible and lacking in all of the qualities it was erroneously imbued with. The clunky, plot hole-filled writing is the prime culprit here, but the abysmal casting knocks the project down more than a few pegs, too. While Hathaway turns in her usual capable work, it’s vastly overshadowed by the remarkably underwhelming performance of Hartnett and the positively dreadful monotone portrayal of Johnson, who treats her character with the same deadpan, dispassionate handling as she did in the “Fifty Shades of Grey” trilogy (2015-2018). Moreover, were it not for the stunning visuals of the Vermont landscape (particularly in winter) and the stylish appointments of the designer home in which most of the story is set, there’s really not much else to see (or like) in this absolute utter snoozefest. How this title ever got out of pre-production is beyond me, but, if your expectations are low, this just might be to your liking – that is, if there’s nothing to watch on Lifetime.

The psychological thriller sets up an intriguing, twisted premise filled with dark secrets and moral ambiguity. Unraveling the hidden manuscript inside an unsettling household provides genuine suspense, giving the story enough eerie tension to make it a good, engaging watch overall.

Dakota Johnson is absolutely stunning in the lead, bringing effortless allure, quiet curiosity, and sharp emotional vulnerability to her character. Her commanding screen presence anchors the entire film, making her descent into obsession feel captivating even when the narrative begins to drag.

However, the dull screenplay keeps the movie from reaching its full potential. The pacing feels sluggish in key stretches, relying on convenient exposition rather than building sharp psychological dread. While the writing stumbles and fails to deliver a tighter punch, Dakota's magnetic performance and the atmospheric mystery keep it thoroughly enjoyable.

"Lowen" (Dakota Johnson) has just left a sparsely-attended book signing when her agent tells her she might have an opportunity to make some proper cash. That involves her doing a bit of collaboration with the well-established best-seller "Verity" (Anne Hathaway) who has become temporarily incapacitated. She's very anxious about taking on this responsibility, but the poorly author's husband "Jeremy" (Josh Hartnett) - with whom she'd already had an unfortunate encounter en-route to the meeting - convinces her to give it a go and to move in with them at their remote and luxurious Montana home. It's once she is there that she discovers just what is wrong with "Verity" and also a manuscript on a hidden flash drive that provides her with quite a ghastly narrative of the goings-on within this marriage. All the while she is finding herself increasingly drawn to "Jeremy" and their young son "Crew" (Brady Wagner) but the more of the unpublished story she reads, and the more she observes around her, the less she takes on face value and ultimately believes. Is any of this scenario actually real? Given she's barely been off the screen in 2026, it's not too surprising that Hathaway has chosen to spend almost all of her sparing appearances here either in bed or on a chair - she actually contributes really very little to an otherwise rather good-looking but plodding drama that has far too many predicatable tram-lines to follow. When Hartnett was younger and had something of the eye-candy to him, I could see why he was on screen but now he has aged into really quite a bland actor who brings virtually nothing original to his role. Even the usually more reliable, though hardly versatile, Johnson seems content to just go through the motions as we skip along to an denouement that is both rushed and, I felt, contrived to suggest there might be legs in "Verity II". It is trying to be a little more sophisticated a thriller, but sadly it's all just join-the-dots stuff that you may well have forgotten by the time you leave the foyer. I did like the house, though.

#filmreviewhaiku

Two great turns, one mope / Well shot, good backdrop, all fine / I'd rewatch if asked