Verity Review

By the time the credits rolled, I wondered whether the film thought the average audience member did not know what unreliable narrator storytelling is. In a world with Shutter Island, Fight Club, Gone Girl, and so on, I found this psychological thriller to be dizzying for some right and wrong reasons. Although Verity, viewed as a tale of tragic ambition, may have been what kept me plastered to my theatre seat.    

Based on the Colleen Hoover novel Verity, the story centers around Lowen Ashleigh’s perspective. Lowen is a writer in need of work when she is contacted by Jeremy Crawford, the husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford. Due to a mysterious accident, Verity is unable to finish her successful book series, and Jeremy asks Lowen to complete the series. While working on it, Lowen discovers another manuscript, raising questions regarding Verity’s psychological well-being and possible links to her publications.

Despite not reading Hoover’s book before seeing the film, it did make me curious whether the shifting narratives and perspectives were handled the same way in the novel. The revelations and uncovered truths Lowen experienced were a bit cliché, but the journey toward those truths was erotically charged and disturbingly flavourful, to say the least. The ambiguity surrounding some of the perspectives was one of the strongest elements for a thriller like this, but the reveals ultimately did not have enough punch.

Even the jump scares in Verity were unnecessarily bad, coming across as both predictable and poorly structured. The perfect jump scare should hit hard and unexpectedly. Whether I think jump scares are a necessary device in thrillers or horror projects is a different conversation, but this film sets them up in a strange way.

Either something went wrong in the editing room or the cinematography did not build enough tension leading into the scares. Each jump scare relies too heavily on the sharp stinger sound that every thriller or horror fan knows. To me, that cheapened the scares rather than making them more effective through a combination of unsettling visuals and sound. The cinematography still had its highlights, though, with well-shot shock-value moments and artistic, sensual set pieces.

“On the acting, Anne Hathaway and Josh Hartnett killed it as Verity and Jeremy Crawford.”

Speaking of sound, the lack of a stronger score throughout Verity disappointed me, especially knowing it was composed by Academy Award-winning composer Volker Bertelmann. I enjoyed Bertelmann’s work on All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave because each featured a memorable theme that carried throughout the film.

The musical theme associated with Verity and Lowen did stick with me because of the experimental synthesizer layered into the sweeping orchestral sound. I liked that combination, but the theme is barely used throughout the movie. For much of the film, the score instead relies on fairly generic string arrangements.

On the acting, Anne Hathaway and Josh Hartnett killed it as Verity and Jeremy Crawford. For most of their scenes together, it made sense why they were a sort of power couple in this world. They played the perfect representation of a celebrity couple who some fans or outside eyes would see as an elusively strange couple once you peer into their world. Brady Wagner as Verity and Jeremy’s son also helped sell the creepiness around the Crawford family quite well.

The biggest letdown from an acting standpoint is probably no surprise to some: Dakota Johnson’s Lowen. Do not get me wrong; I enjoyed Johnson’s performances in Bad Times at the El Royale, The Peanut Butter Falcon, The Materialists, and Am I OK?. Sadly, she played this role too safely and comfortably. There needed to be some Scream Queen energy out of Lowen, and Johnson did not have it. At the very least, Johnson needed to show Lowen’s growth through the more ambitious and bolder decisions Lowen is presented with. 

” If you are an avid reader of Hoover’s works, then this should be a good enough depiction.”

One last positive about Verity was the production design and set decoration from Amy Williams and Kendall Anderson. The Crawford house felt like a character of its own. It had the look of a Nordic chalet, with rustic wooden beams and finishes throughout the structure and furniture.

That woodsy aesthetic was complemented by stone and rock elements built into the house, contrasting the warm yellow-brown tones with shades of grey. Those details helped build tension, particularly as the story portrayed the Crawfords as a fairly reclusive family.

Verity is certainly one of the more complex stories and films as a Hoover adaptation to screen, taking a beat away from the romance-drama genre. If you are an avid reader of Hoover’s works, then this should be a good enough depiction. And even if you are not, this did have some decent inspirations from Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw baked in. At the end of the day, the film was worth it for the well-staged production and Hathaway and Hartnett’s acting prowess. Their performances will keep you guessing what the real truth is to the very end.