Rating: ⭐⭐☆☆☆ (39% on Rotten Tomatoes)
If in 2021 you were holding Colleen Hoover’s Verity and were completely shocked, looking forward with great excitement to the moment when the shocking psychological horror of the book would be shown on the big screen, you may want to reduce your expectations. The much-anticipated film adaptation has now finally come out, and even though it features a highly renowned cast, including Anne Hathaway as Verity Crawford, Dakota Johnson as Lowen Ashleigh, and Josh Hartnett as Jeremy Crawford, it still falls disappointingly short of becoming the dark and wildly intense thriller that book fans have come to love.
Rather than presenting a chilling mystery that makes you doubt the nature of reality, the film unfolds in a manner similar to a sophisticated, well-financed romantic drama with a small element of suspense. The rivalry between Johnson and Hathaway, driven by their chemistry for Hartnett’s attention, is the main focus, with the intense terror of the original story being pushed aside.
Here is a breakdown of where the movie deviated from the source material, why the book remains superior, and how the adaptation unexpectedly reignited the biggest debate in BookTok history: Team Letter or Team Manuscript?
What The Movie Left On The Cutting Room Floor
Adapting a book into a two-hour film inevitably involves making cuts, but the ones made in this case get rid of the very essence of what had made Verity so disturbing.
1. The Missing Twin (Chastin)
The book states that Verity and Jeremy have three children: Harper, Crew, and Chastin, who is Harper’s twin sister. The way in which Verity had a strong and dark obsession with Chastin and completely ignored Harper offered important psychological background for the collapse of the family, particularly since, after Chastin dies as a result of an allergic reaction at a sleepover, Verity unfairly blames Harper. In the film, however, Chastin is entirely omitted, and the plot is simplified to focus on Harper and Crew, thereby losing the disturbing elements of maternal preference and resentment.
2. Lowen’s Sleepwalking History
The fact that Lowen had a history of sleepwalking was one of the most tense aspects of the novel, as it made it difficult to tell where her paranoia ended and real danger began. Since this feature has been omitted from the movie, it misses one of the most frightening scenes in the book: the moment when Lowen wakes up in Verity’s bed, not knowing how she got there or whether Verity is actually incapacitated.
3. The Manuscript’s Darkest Chapter
The film greatly reduces the grotesque aspects of Verity’s manuscript, omitting completely the horrifying scene in which Verity tries to carry out a self-abortion on the twins while Jeremy is asleep, acting out of a fixation on keeping her devotion exclusively to herself. Because these intense scenes are missing, the manuscript comes across less as a confession of pure malice and more as a startling creative exercise.
Team Letter vs. Team Manuscript: Did the Screen Version Change Minds?
The ultimate climax of Verity has always turned on one question: was the manuscript a horrific truth written by a psychopath, or was it simply a dark writing exercise, in which case the final letter would be the real truth?
As the old saying goes, the book was clearly superior to the film. Yet the movie introduces an unexpected development into the discussion. In fact, people who went to the theatre, firmly belonging to either “Team Manuscript” or “Team Letter,” have said that watching the story presented on screen caused them to change their minds.
The Verdict
If fans want a lively visual version of Colleen Hoover‘s world featuring top actors, Verity provides a lot of stylish drama and romantic tension. However, as a psychological thriller, it falls short of the terrifying effect achieved in the book. It’s better to read the novel and skip the movie; then you’ll have another argument about the ending at your next campus book club.
Are you Team Letter or Team Manuscript?