 *Major spoiler warning for anyone who hasn’t seen Verity and is planning to see it*
While I have yet to see all of the major movie releases in 2026 (and we do still have some time for the rest), I was able to see some and one of them was Verity. I can’t stop thinking about it just because it genuinely surprised me and opened my mind back up to the movie adaptations of Colleen Hoover’s books, which have gained an immense amount of popularity.
The latest book-to-movie adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s book Verity has been gaining a lot of traction before the movie was showing in theaters– Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and Josh Hartnett being the main stars as one reason but also the overall popularity Colleen Hoover books receive in general, this book being because of its intense storyline as a psychological thriller and romance.Â
Verity follows Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson) as she is hired to become a ghostwriter for renowned author Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway). Lowen is hired to write for Verity as she was told Verity was not in a position to finish her series and it was on a deadline– Lowen herself was already a published author and writes in the same genre as Verity. Lowen thought she was randomly selected for this job when she was actually chosen by Verity’s husband, Jeremy Crawford (Josh Hartnett). He later reveals that when they talk privately but they had already met previously when an accident happened on Lowen’s commute to the meeting, Jeremy helps her to a bathroom, and helps her get cleaned up. They parted ways then met again at the meeting. He offered for Lowen to stay in their house in Vermont in order to read the notes Verity wrote for all of her books in order for her to pick up where Verity left off when things took a dark turn.
Verity was revealed to have been in a car accident, which is why she couldn’t finish her book. The accident left her unable to walk or speak so she’s moved around and cared for by her nurse. Lowen was considering backing out but did not– continuing to read her way through Verity’s notes in her office. Lowen discovers in her trek through Verity’s notes, a very chilling autobiography that Verity had written, the file separated on a labeled flashdrive, “V.C”. Lowen, believing it may be useful to her work and getting into the mind of Verity to maintain her voice for the readers, decides to open the file and print the autobiography manuscript. But the autobiography was very, very dark and twisted– exposing the true feelings and inner thoughts of Verity. The movie plays through the scenes of the manuscript and Lowen’s turmoil as she continues to read it in secret and discovers more and more about Verity’s life through her husband, Jeremy. She ends up falling for Jeremy, despite Verity still being alive and in the house, and their relationship changes fast. The movie twists again when Lowen actually becomes jealous of Verity’s life: her husband, her house, and her son, and wants to take it for herself. Through reading the manuscript, she came to the conclusion that Verity was faking being paralyzed, especially since the beginning of her stay, she was starting to see glimpses of Verity everywhere, despite it being impossible because of her condition. She convinced herself, along with Jeremy’s help, that she was potentially losing her mind until the one night when the truth was revealed.
Lowen sets up an old baby monitor camera to watch Verity when Jeremy finds out about it, getting upset with Lowen, is when she reveals the information she’s sitting on/what she’s been hiding from Jeremy from the manuscript. Jeremy and Verity had twins and one of them had died the past year. The manuscript was essentially Verity’s confession: she confessed to wanting to kill her daughter for years and that she did, painting the incident as an accident that was believed by authorities and Jeremy. Jeremy, in a fit of rage, storms into Verity’s room and tries to get a reaction, a word, anything. The entire theater gasped simultaneously, me along with them, because Verity snapped out of her role and started talking. Out of everything that I was expecting, that was low on the list. I truly thought Dakota’s character was just hallucinating from the nature of the situation and the fact that her character was taking over Verity’s work and having to get in her head in a sense to finish it. And of course, Verity popping up around the house was going unexplained and maybe was coincidental or even a creative movie decision. The acting in this entire movie was true cinema– these actors I expected their performance to be top tier but this took it over every threshold. Verity tried to explain why she did what she did, why she was pretending, but Jeremy decided he was over everything. He decides in the moment to attack and try to kill Verity. Lowen is running through the house and into the room, trying to get him to stop. I’m thinking that she wanted to stop him from killing Verity, maybe even wanting to hear Verity’s side. Colleen Hoover and her twists never fail: Lowen actually stopped Jeremy to tell him how to properly kill Verity without leaving marks that would lead to the suspicion of foul play. They decided together to come up with a story, drop Verity’s body in the lake behind the house, and paint the entire event as an accident to start fresh together.Â
Several months later, they are moving out of the house when Lowen discovers a letter hidden under a floorboard. It was written by Verity and for Jeremy. She was describing how she began her creative process and how she was able to write the way that she does: dark, twisted, and horrific. It was an idea from someone Verity was working with from her publisher, trying to help Verity create addictive and best-selling books. The manuscript was revealed by Verity to be how she dealt with the grief of her daughter, by writing her autobiography how she writes her books: taking her true self and turning them into a villain, turning normal thoughts into deeply twisted ones. She then revealed Jeremy had actually read the manuscript, months before Lowen was in the picture, and was the one behind Verity’s accident. Verity pretended to remain incapacitated to prevent Jeremy from trying to kill her again and succeed, leaving their son alone with him. Lowen, despite this revelation, stayed but it’s a true dilemma: is she staying because she’s just as twisted? Because she played a part in Verity’s death and planning to take Jeremy and their son? Or because she’s now moving in with Jeremy and having their child, there is no way out for her because she knows what he’s capable of? That is how the movie ends but there’s another question it brings up that Lowen is considering as well with the audience: which writing was the real truth? The manuscript or the letter?
I can’t tell what team I’m on just because Verity was very good at manipulating the truth for books and real life– it is truly hard to tell which was real but this movie was very good. I was surprised because I had not read a Colleen Hoover book since Ugly Love and It Ends With Us, traumatizing me from books for a long time. I went to this movie just wanting to see Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and Josh Hartnett and came out being very impressed at this movie interpretation, the acting, and the plot.Â
If you read the book and/or watched the movie, which team are you on? Team manuscript or team letter?