Film critic Susan Granger rated "Verity" "a creepy, melodramatic yet stylish 6" on her Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, writing that the film is playing in theaters.
Critic Gives 'Verity' a 6 Out of 10, Calling Hoover Adaptation Stylish but Melodramatic
Film critic Susan Granger rated "Verity" "a creepy, melodramatic yet stylish 6" on her Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, writing that the film is playing in theaters.
Granger describes the film as "an erotic psychological thriller, propelled by the screen power of Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, Josh Hartnett and a stunning woodland house in Armonk, New York." She writes that it has "its predictable share of jump-scares" and calls it "the latest of Colleen Hoover's pulpy works to transfer to the silver screen, following It Ends With Us, Regretting You and Reminders of Him."
According to the review, the plot follows struggling author Lowen Ashleigh, played by Dakota Johnson, who is summoned to Hachette Publishers in midtown Manhattan. On the way, a car accident involving a bike messenger leaves her blood-splattered, and a passer-by helps her clean up in a coffee-shop restroom and gives her his white shirt. He turns out to be Jeremy Crawford, played by Josh Hartnett, whose wife, Verity, played by Anne Hathaway, is a best-selling novelist who can no longer write after an accident left her paralyzed, the review states. The publisher is described as eager to pay Lowen a hefty fee to finish the next book in Verity's series and to ghostwrite two more from her notes.
Granger writes that Lowen moves into the Crawfords' lakeside Vermont house, where Jeremy lives with his eight-year-old son, Crew, played by Brady Wagner, whose twin sister drowned in a canoe accident a few months earlier. Verity is described as immobile and catatonic and tended by a nurse played by Irina Dvorovenko. According to the review, Lowen and Jeremy find each other attractive, and Lowen later discovers autobiographical transcripts confessing things Verity may or may not have done.
The review states the house is known as Beckoning Path, a mid-century modern estate designed by Denmark's Jen Quistgard and built in 1955 by Frank Lloyd Wright protégé Edgar Tafel, and that it now serves as a wellness retreat center. The film was adapted by Nick Antosca, whose credits the review lists as "Cape Fear," and directed by Michael Showalter, whose credits it lists as "The Big Sick." A photo caption with the review credits the film to Amazon Studios M.G.M.
- The source does not state a release date for the film, nor a distributor beyond the Amazon Studios M.G.M. credit in the photo caption.
- The source does not state box-office figures, budget, audience numbers, or running time.
- The source does not reconcile its description of the Crawfords' house as a lakeside Vermont house with its identification of the estate as being in Armonk, New York.
- The source spells the designer's name as Jen Quistgard and does not give further identifying detail, including any alternate spelling.
- The source does not state who played the bike messenger or any named role beyond those listed.
- The source is a review and contains no independent reporting on the production; it does not state whether cast, crew or Colleen Hoover were asked for comment.
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