Colleen Hoover’s Verity is her fourth book adapted to the screen. Though it came out Oct. 2, Amazon hosted screenings specifically for students in Los Angeles three days early. Throughout the theater, there was constant laughter, though this movie is not a comedy, it’s an erotic thriller.
Verity follows Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson) who after losing her mother and being down on her luck, is hired to write famous author Verity Crawford’s (Anne Hatheway) newest books. She moves into her house and starts to fall for Verity’s husband, Jeremy (Josh Hartnett). She starts to despise Verity and is convinced she is faking being catatonic following a supposed vehicular suicide attempt. When Lowen finds a secret manuscript, Verity’s life seems to be a lot darker than the public is led to think.
As an adaptation, this movie is fine. Die-hard fans of Hoover might be upset to learn that the movie removed one of Verity’s children and cut the epilogue. However, those changes actually work well in this movie’s favor.
Save yourself some time and watch the movie, the 300 plus page book doesn’t add much. Without Hoover’s childish wordy blubber, the story might be easier to digest, even if the plot is lackluster and the characters are boring.
The plot isn’t great; the only thing creating anticipation is whether Verity is faking her injuries or not. Verity’s manuscript shocks with filicide, and deeply obsessive behavior towards her husband. With this information Lowen feels vindicated in her pursuit of Jeremy, Verity’s willingly ignorant husband.
There’s also a lot that is not needed. The sex scenes (one too many of them) were laughed at in the theater and things that are supposed to be serious are not taken seriously by the audience. When Lowen and Jeremy made out, there were a lot of groans and “NOs.” When an entire theater laughs when a mother tries to murder her child, it is clear the movie is not giving what it was meant to.
In terms of characters, all are far from redeemable. Lowen’s only prominent character trait is wanting another woman’s man. She has some moments that might make her a little interesting, like when she encourages Jeremy to murder Verity or when she delivers the truly thrilling line to a bedridden Verity that she is a “selfish Machiavellian cunt.” There are pieces of dialogue that are pulled directly from the book, but that’s not one of them, though it is on par for Hoover’s writing. Besides having somewhat evil traits, she’s got nothing else.
Is she acting? Is she even emoting? Dakota Johnson’s performance fails on all fronts. She is monotone and never cares, though this seems consistent with other roles.
It’s not like Josh Hartnett, playing Jeremy, is any better. He’s a grieving husband, a good dad, and he doesn’t hesitate to fall in love with a woman who is not his wife. Verity is the most unique person in this movie, and the best of the three characters. Anne Hathaway does a great job showing both her evil side with her wild eyes and unstable personality. She is also great at switching opinion on Verity when she portrays her as a scared wife who would do anything for her son.
There is no point to Verity. Every time it may form a cohesive thought, it doesn’t. The only solid point it attempts to make is at the very end: what is the truth? As Alision Jin, a junior film production major at LMU said, “Lowkey neither makes sense to me.”
Questioning what is true might have been a good approach if the movie spent more than twenty minutes on the subject. It tries to leave wondering which truth is real: Verity’s letter or the manuscript. The only throughline with this idea is Verity’s name, which means truth. Unless you are familiar with Latin, this is not something a general audience would know unless you googled it, so it doesn’t add anything to the movie’s supposed point.
Adaptations are one of the biggest categories of movies currently coming out and studios are trying to find more books to be made into film or TV. There are better and more interesting books to be adapted, but it does make financial sense as to why they are making another Hoover film. She’s built a readership that is guaranteed to bring in money. This playbook works, making over $32 million already. This is surprising considering this free event for students did not have every seat filled, even though the theater was overbooked in anticipation of a huge crowd.
Save your money, save your time-Verity is forgettable. At most it will hold your attention, where you will likely laugh and say “I’m so lost,” like the students in that early screening.
