Colleen Hoover's book-to-film conveyor belt keeps rolling. The latest: Verity, an erotic psychothriller that swaps the author's usual romance beats for something closer to gothic midnight-movie territory.
At a glance
- Verity opened in cinemas worldwide on Friday, October 2.
- Stars Dakota Johnson as ghost-writer Lowen Ashleigh, Anne Hathaway as incapacitated author Verity Crawford, and Josh Hartnett as husband Jeremy.
- Directed by Michael Showalter (Wet Hot American Summer, The Big Sick, The Eyes of Tammy Faye).
- Based on Hoover's self-published 2018 novel.
- Marks Hoover's fourth film adaptation, following the $350 million gross of It Ends With Us.
The set-up
Lowen is broke. She takes a cheque to finish a best-selling book series whose author, Verity Crawford, is incapacitated after a suspicious accident. The deal: move into the family's remote glass mansion in snowy Vermont and sift through Verity's private papers.
What she uncovers is an autobiography nobody was supposed to find. The framework is gothic comfort food: a remote house, a brooding husband, a possibly-mad woman upstairs. Anyone who watched The Housemaid this year already recognises the chassis.
Our analysis
Showalter leans into the pulpy register without apology. The man made Wet Hot American Summer. He understands how to wink at a genre while still giving the audience the goods. The cast visibly enjoys the silliness, and that looseness carries the picture.
The cracks are structural. There's a twist too many, and the central reveal runs long. Hoover's source material is grim enough that her romantic meet-cute involves a man describing how he pulled his eight-year-old daughter's body out of a lake. The film doesn't flinch. Neither should the audience.
For Dakota Johnson fans coming off the Fifty Shades trilogy, this is familiar turf. Anne Hathaway gets the scenery-chewing role she's been waiting years for. Josh Hartnett commits fully to brooding-husband-in-a-snowy-glass-box duty.
Here's where expectations matter. It Ends With Us cleared $350 million. Verity lacks that mainstream romance hook, and the reveal overstays its welcome while logic-exploding twists accumulate. That points to softer legs and word-of-mouth split between cult fans and casual walkouts.
Who benefits: adult-skewing genre audiences, Hathaway completists, anyone who wants a grown-up thriller on a Friday night. Who loses: viewers expecting It Ends With Us-scale romance catharsis. They will not find it here.
Try this: viewer homework
Want the full Hoover-on-screen arc before the streaming window opens? Watch in this order: It Ends With Us (the phenomenon, $350 million gross), The Housemaid (this year's tonal near-twin), then Verity. You'll see both the audience Hoover built and the genre she keeps borrowing from.
Bottom line
This is a Friday-night cinema trip, not a cultural event. Showalter plays Verity's somewhat deranged tone just right. Book the tickets, lower expectations for clean plotting, and raise them for Hathaway going full gothic.
Key takeaways
- Verity is a pulpy gothic that owns its silliness.
- The Johnson-Hathaway-Hartnett trio is the main draw.
- Don't expect It Ends With Us money; the structure is messier and the audience narrower.
Frequently asked questions
Is Verity based on a Colleen Hoover book?
Yes. It adapts her 2018 self-published novel of the same name.
Who stars in the Verity film?
Dakota Johnson, Anne Hathaway and Josh Hartnett.
When did Verity open in cinemas?
Friday, October 2.
How might it compare to It Ends With Us at the box office?
It Ends With Us cleared $350 million. Verity is darker and steamier, which tends to shrink the mainstream romance audience.
Is it a good date-night pick?
If your date handled Fifty Shades, yes. It's steamier than a typical romantic drama, with stronger gothic-thriller bones than a Nicholas Sparks adaptation.
Source: timeout.com
