I don’t consider myself a Colleen Hoover fan, but some author pals in my friend group definitely are. And while I somewhat enjoyed the adaptation of It Ends with Us, it was Verity, the dark and twisted thriller that put Hoover on the map, that I was told to look out for. Well, the wait for that movie is over, and it’s true what they say: Sometimes what works on the page doesn’t work on the big screen.
The thing about Verity is that I can tell there’s a transgressive DePalma-esque erotic thriller in there somewhere, but it’s written in black ink and sitting in a Barnes & Noble somewhere. It’s certainly not in the movie, directed by veteran filmmaker Michael Showalter, which lacks any spark whatsoever. Where’s the soapy, trashy melodrama? Where’s the naughtiness of last year’s diabolical The Housemaid? Where’s the devilish fun of A Simple Plan? The success of those two films shows that audiences love to watch sexy, broken people manipulate, abuse, and even kill one another. Verity teases all of that but it’s like somewhere along the way someone ripped out all of the pages and tossed them into a shredder.
This is a backward career move for Dakota Johnson, reverting to 50 Shades of Grey blandness as Lowen, a struggling author hired out of nowhere to ghostwrite a new book from bestselling author Verity Crawford, played with maximum iciness by Anne Hathaway. Verity, a Gillian Flynn-esque writer whose murder novels have sold millions, is incapacitated after an accident and can’t finish the franchise. Josh Hartnett plays Verity’s handsome husband Jeremy (the only person here with a normal name, meaning he’s the most fucked up of them all), who Lowen first met when they witnessed a bloody vehicular homicide. As far as meet-cutes go, that is definitely one you won’t see in a Nancy Meyers rom-com.
Offered a truckload of cashola, Lowen accepts and moves into the Crawfords’ posh Vermont home to start the process. However, she’s pissed to learn that Verity is paralyzed, wheelchair-bound, and can’t even speak. Even worse, Lowen discovers Verity’s secret autobiography, which reveals she is a lot more evil than anyone ever knew. Good thing that Jeremy guy is so cute and everything! Of course, an illicit affair between the two breaks out, and Lowen thinks Verity might be secretly watching them.
It all sounds ridiculous because it is, but too bad Verity doesn’t play it that way. This movie could’ve done with a lot more cheekiness, rather than the dull seriousness we’re given. For instance, Jeremy is such a stud that he has women leaving teeth marks on the headboard from biting down on it so hard during sex. If you can’t find a way to have some fun with the absurdity of that, then you’re not trying hard enough. Instead, audiences might grind their teeth for a completely different reason: to stay awake. Verity never gets out of neutral, coasting along as its cast delivers low-energy performances that would sink any film, but look particularly bad for a movie that demands a more heightened approach.
Showalter, whose background is making a comedic meal out of dramatic turmoil (The Big Sick, Spoiler Alert), apparently can’t do the same when murder is on the table. Verity bears the hallmarks of an adaptation unsure of what to keep from Hoover’s novel and what to leave out. Characters that could’ve filled in the gaps for Lowen, or perhaps just made for a more entertaining movie, were underwritten or written out completely. Such as Jeremy and Verity’s young son, Crew (yes, that is his name, played by Brady Wagner), who sees everything going on in the house. There’s also Verity’s stern nurse, played by Irina Dvorovenko, a character that you can tell has a more crucial role in the book but spends most of her time…well, leaving. She’s always going someplace else and conveniently leaving Verity behind.
After a killer opening and lousy follow-through, Verity somewhat recovers as the confrontation we’d been hoping for finally arrives. While that plays out in a satisfyingly wicked way, what follows is one final twist and an ambiguous conclusion so smug it’s a wonder we can hear any of it over the sound of Hoover slapping herself on the back.
Verity opens in theaters on October 2nd from Amazon MGM Studios.
