Despite the limited critical success of Colleen Hoover adaptations, I was really excited for Verity. I really enjoy the book, and while Hoover's work hasn't translated to film overly well, the fun blend of thriller and romance here felt like it could be a great candidate for a solid film adaptation. Throw in a director I enjoy a lot in Michael Showalter, and a trio of bonafide stars in Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and Josh Hartnett, and this felt like it had the makings of at the very least a fun time. That's where I'm perhaps most disappointed, at worst this should have been a fun schlocky thriller, but by the end I wound up just feeling uninterested.
The story follows Loewen (Johnson) a struggling author recently dealing with the loss of her mother. She is brought into a mysterious meeting where after signing some NDAs she is asked to finish the book series of world famous writer Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway). A car accident left Verity unable to walk or speak, and her husband Jeremy (Hartnett) believes Loewen is the perfect choice to finish her series. When Loewen begins to live in the house where Jeremy cares for Verity and their son Crew, she is set headfirst into a tangled web of lies and darkness.
This movie is a mess, but I kind of expected that. Admittedly the book's appeal is largely through its ability to blend erotic romance with a campy thriller. My biggest issue here is that the film just isn't fun. It takes a novel that you can read in one sitting and adapts it into something that hits multiple lulls despite stripping a lot of detail from the story. In stripping things away it also makes everything leading up to the film's final events a lot less plausible. I expected that Showalter's sensibilities behind the camera would allow the film to deliver us an entertaining thriller, but it's honestly just a bit of a bore.
It doesn't help that the trio of performers all leave a lot to be desired. For some reason any time someone says another character's name it feels wildly forced, and they say Verity's name at least 100 times. Anne Hathaway is the strongest performer, but she is bedridden and mute for most of the film's runtime. Hartnett is mostly fine as the hunky leading man, but when he loses his cool at all his performance loses its believability. Dakota Johnson is one of the biggest hit or miss actors out there and this unfortunately feels like one she's sleepwalking through. It feels like she doesn't have a grasp on the character and her performance winds up feeling forced and dull when it could have leaned into the camp more. He isn't on screen nearly as much as the core trio, but I also really didn't care for Ismael Cruz Cordova as Loewen's agent.
There are highlights here, namely the immaculate set design bringing Verity's house to life. I also found the editing to deliver some fun moments here and there. All in all though it just misses the mark, fumbling a fun twist to deliver an ending that leaves none of the excitement from the novel. Oh and the last moments of the film are a fake Hot Ones interview, that was the final blow for me. 2/5
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