Verity Review: Dakota Johnson & Anne Hathaway Navigate A Twisty Psychological Thriller
Verity Director: Michael Showalter Cast: Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, Josh Harnett Where: In theatres. Rating: *** Review Michael Showalter’s adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s psychological thriller places struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh in the unnerving orbit of celebrated author Verity Crawford, rendered helpless after a catastrophic accident. Invited to continue Verity’s successful book…
Michael Showalter's adaptation of Colleen Hoover's psychological thriller, Verity, stars Anne Hathaway as celebrated author Verity Crawford and Dakota Johnson as struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh. Lowen finds herself drawn into Verity's world after being invited to continue the successful book series, and she moves into the Crawford home. As Lowen delves into Verity's manuscript, the line between truth and deceit becomes increasingly blurred.
The film starts off with a deliberate slow pace, letting suspicion accumulate around Lowen's relationship with the Crawford family and her wavering judgment. Once the revelations start coming in, the film takes liberties with plausibility, leading to increasingly extravagant twists. These twists offer a guilty pleasure for those who enjoy a thriller that pushes the boundaries of credibility, but also reveal Verity's main flaw – it blurs the line between psychological depth and outrageousness.
Dakota Johnson delivers a watchable performance as Lowen, gradually shifting from curiosity to fixation and suspicion becoming something darker. Anne Hathaway embraces Verity's theatrical qualities with mischievous relish, making the character difficult to classify as either victim or villain. Josh Hartnett convincingly portrays the seemingly devoted husband, yet his predicament isn't entirely new in the genre.
The Crawford home itself provides an elegant container for the escalating revelations, with its polished interiors and Gothic gloss bringing the dark atmosphere to life. Volker Bertelmann's ominous score adds an unsettling pulse to the proceedings, but the film's visual polish sometimes makes the story appear more respectable than it is.
Overall, Verity is an entertaining, stylish, and knowingly excessive thriller that asks the audience to set disbelief aside and enjoy the twists. While the film's unpredictability is hard to resist, its most unsettling question may be whether shock has been mistaken for substance.
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