Colleen Hoover’s Verity arrives on the big screen with all the ingredients of a successful psychological thriller: a mysterious writer, a disturbing manuscript, a complicated relationship and a story built around the question of who is telling the truth. But while the film manages to preserve much of what made the novel popular, it struggles to recreate the experience of reading it.
Directed by Michael Showalter and starring Dakota Johnson, Anne Hathaway and Josh Hartnett, Verity follows Lowen Ashleigh (Johnson), a struggling writer hired to finish the books of bestselling author Verity Crawford (Hathaway), who has been left paralyzed after an accident. While staying with Verity and her husband Jeremy (Hartnett), Lowen discovers a manuscript that appears to reveal disturbing secrets about the family.
The result is an entertaining and engaging film, even if it does not fully capture the complexity of the novel that inspired it.
An adaptation that feels too rushed
In terms of plot, Verity is relatively faithful to Hoover’s novel. The central characters, the manuscript, the main twists and the overall mystery are all there. The problem is that being faithful to the plot does not necessarily mean capturing the experience of reading the book, especially when the film simplifies several elements that give the story its psychological depth.
The novel has much more time to develop Lowen’s relationship with the Crawford family, her attraction to Jeremy, her growing obsession with Verity and, most importantly, her uncertainty about what is real. The film moves through these developments so quickly that they end up not having the same impact.
A limited series might have worked better for this story. With more time, the adaptation could have allowed these relationships and suspicions to develop gradually, making the audience more emotionally invested in the characters and giving the mystery more room to breathe.
What changed from the book?
The film does not radically rewrite Hoover’s story, but some of the elements that were removed or simplified are important to the way the novel builds tension.
One of the biggest changes is the removal of one of the Crawford children, as well as Lowen’s sleepwalking storyline. The book also spends more time exploring Lowen’s psychological state and her relationship with the family. Several details surrounding Verity’s death are changed as well. These details may seem secondary, but they contribute to the feeling that the audience can never be completely sure about what is happening.
The manuscript itself is also much more disturbing in the novel. It goes into greater detail about Verity’s resentment toward her daughters and the disturbing things she claims to have thought about or attempted to do to them. These revelations make the manuscript more shocking and add to the uncertainty surrounding Verity’s character.
In the book, the doubt builds slowly, and the reader is constantly questioning Verity, Lowen and Jeremy, as well as their motivations and versions of events. The film still raises these questions, but it presents them in a more straightforward way.
The book also leaves more room for readers to decide whether to believe the letter, while the film directs the audience more strongly toward accepting Verity’s explanation. The mystery is still there, but the adaptation feels less psychologically complex than the novel.
Interestingly, Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson also favor the letter over the manuscript. In interviews, both actresses identified themselves as “Team Letter.” Their opinions do not establish which version is true, but they add to the discussion about how the film presents its central mystery.
Colleen Hoover herself has also changed her perspective on the story. While she initially leaned toward Team Manuscript, watching the film made her reconsider Verity’s character and the possibility that the letter might tell the truth.
Hathaway Steals the Spotlight
Anne Hathaway is easily the strongest part of Verity. She manages to make Verity unsettling even when the script gives her very little to work with. Because the character spends much of the film unable to speak or move, Hathaway has to communicate almost entirely through her expressions, and she makes those moments count.
Unfortunately, the rest of the cast does not reach the same level.
Dakota Johnson’s performance as Lowen is particularly weak. The character should be increasingly frightened, suspicious and emotionally conflicted, but Johnson often seems too detached from what is happening around her. Josh Hartnett’s Jeremy is similarly unconvincing, lacking the complexity and emotional weight the character needs.
Hathaway is good enough to make Verity memorable, but she cannot carry the entire film by herself.
The Thriller Takes a Backseat
Verity keeps the audience engaged with its central mystery and the question of what really happened inside the Crawford household. Still, its thriller element feels weaker than its dramatic side, which takes up much of the film. The film raises questions about what is true, but the suspense is not always strong enough to make the audience feel genuinely unsettled.
The pacing also affects the tension, some revelations arrive quickly, leaving little time for suspense to build naturally. However, there are enough twists and unanswered questions to keep the audience watching, even when the thriller aspect feels secondary.
Fans were not exactly impressed
The negative reaction from many fans online reflected some of the same problems. Readers have criticized the changes to the story, the removal of important elements from the novel and the feeling that the film does not capture the book’s psychological complexity.
Some viewers have also embraced the movie’s exaggerated and sometimes campy qualities, but others have argued that those moments take away from the darker atmosphere of the original story.
The divided response makes sense. Someone who has never read Verity may find the film entertaining enough, while readers who experienced the novel’s constant uncertainty may feel that something important has been lost in translation.
A missed opportunity
Verity is an entertaining and easy to watch film, with enough twists to keep the audience interested and a standout performance from Anne Hathaway. But as an adaptation, it falls short of the experience the novel offers.
The story is still compelling, but the film loses some of the psychological depth and ambiguity that made the book so engaging. In the end, Verity succeeds at entertaining its audience, even if it does not leave the same lasting questions behind.
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The article above was edited by Marcela Malafaia
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