I have only read one Colleen Hoover novel. That novel? Reminders of Him, which was so awful, with its terrible writing and clichéd narrative, that I swore I would never read another Colleen Hoover story again. I’ve kept that promise to this day, but as a film critic, every once in a while I have to endure one of her terrible novels being adapted for the big screen. Her latest novel to receive the cinematic treatment is Verity. And, just as expected, it’s every bit as bad and trashy as her other novels.
Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson, The Materialist) is hired by Jeremy Crawford (Josh Hartnett, Trap) to ghostwrite novels for his bestselling author wife, Verity (Anne Hathaway, The Odyssey), who is unable to finish following a terrible car accident. Lowen moves into their remote Conneticet home and begins piecing together Verity’s work. However, Lowen uncovers disturbing work written by Verity that makes her question her reality.
Buried somewhere in Verity is a good kind of trashy film. A film that is unserious, twisty, campy, and by all means over the top with a narrative is driven entirely by shock value from its incredibly predictable plot twists. Verity finally becomes that kind of film during its last 30 minutes. Unfortunately, that good trash is sadly buried beneath a whole lot of bad trash.
What is that bad trash you speak of? Dakota Johnson’s performance. Johnson is more than capable of delivering a good performance, as she has demonstrated in films such as Suspiria (2018), Cha Cha Real Smooth, and Splitsville. However, she gives absolutely nothing here. Her performance isn’t even what I would describe as being on autopilot; it feels like a complete lack of effort. She is wooden, shallow, and devoid of any charisma. There is a hollowness to her performance that makes her portrayal feel almost entirely inhuman.
Because of Johnson’s lack of effort, the first three-quarters of the film are excruciatingly painful to sit through. I consistently found myself checking out as I struggled to become invested in the story, which primarily consists of Lowen reading through Verity’s notes and piecing together the details of her life. The film rarely gives us anything compelling enough to hold our attention during this stretch. The only time it managed to genuinely catch my attention was whenever Anne Hathaway appeared on screen as Verity.
Anne Hathaway is probably the film’s one saving grace, keeping it just barely watchable. Hathaway clearly knows she is starring in a trashy film, so she embraces the material with a campy, over-the-top performance that perfectly matches the film’s ridiculous tone. Her performance is so gleefully unserious that watching her on screen as Verity becomes one of the film’s few genuinely entertaining pleasures.
While the final 30 minutes of the film finally deliver the kind of good trash I was hoping for, complete with predictable twists and increasingly ridiculous turns, it unfortunately comes far too late. Those final 30 minutes, along with Anne Hathaway’s performance, simply aren’t enough to save the film from how painfully boring it is. Had there been another actress in the role of Lowen, this film probably would have been far more engaging and, at the very least, more watchable. Sadly, Johnson’s lack of effort leaves Verity shockingly dull, making it exactly the kind of bad trash that Colleen Hoover has become known for.
My Rating: C
Verity is now playing in theatres nationwide.
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