Verity (2026) Amazon MGM/Suspense-Thriller RT: 117 minutes Rated R (sexual content, some nudity, language, violence and bloody images) Director: Michael Showalter Screenplay: Nick Antosca Music: Volker Bertelmann Cinematography: Jim Frohna Release date: October 2, 2026 (US) Cast: Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, Josh Hartnett, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Brady Wagner, Irina Dvorovenko.
Rating: ** ½
The new thriller Verity, based on the best seller by Colleen Hoover, is a throwback to the erotic thrillers of the 90s (e.g. Basic Instinct). It walks the fine line between art and trash never really picking one or the other. It’s this wishy-washiness, combined with its high predictability level, that holds it back. It could have been so much better. Still, I think it’s going to be a hit.
Dakota Johnson (Fifty Shades of Grey) stars as Lowen Ashleigh, an up-and-coming writer who gets hired to help a best-selling author to finish her latest novel. Verity Crawford (Hathaway, The Devil Wears Prada 2), who specializes in novels about villainous characters, is catatonic after a car accident, a supposed suicide attempt after the accidental drowning death of her young daughter. Her husband Jeremy (Hartnett, Trap) specifically wants Lowen because Verity read one of her books and loved it.
Lowen takes the gig and moves into the family’s lakeside home with Jeremy and his son Crew (Wagner), the dead girl’s twin brother. There’s also a home health aide (ballet dancer Dvorovenko) who looks after Verity by day. Lowen immediately gets to work sorting through Verity’s extensive notes planning how to tell another writer’s story. She finds a flash drive stashed in a box on Verity’s desk. On it is her autobiography. The story she tells is quite disturbing.
All may not be as it seems in the Crawford home. Despite her inability to move or speak, Lowen thinks Verity is watching her when nobody’s looking. It’s especially awkward because she starts to develop feelings for Jeremy. It leads to “The Scene Everybody Will Be Talking About for Years”. It involves Dakota in a bathtub fantasizing about Jeremy. I’ll say no more.
Directed by Michael Showalter (The Big Sick), Verity is slick and sleek yet empty. It’s all surface and no substance. The symbolism of the name Verity (it means “truth”) is too obvious. The film centers on characters who may or may not be telling the truth about how they got here. Who are we supposed to believe? Is Verity or Jeremy the master manipulator? And what about Lowen? What’s her story? Her mother recently died of cancer. Really? Is there more to it than that? Showalter plays mind games with the audience. But here’s the thing. Most of us will already know that going in. We’re ready for every twist of the plot. The film isn’t as tricky as it thinks it is.
Moreover, Verity is disappointingly predictable. The only ones that’ll be surprised by it are those who don’t see too many movies. I had it all figured out early on. I was just waiting for that last “surprise” twist, the one that’s meant to elicit a collective gasp from the audience. It’ll probably work on some viewers, but it didn’t work on Movie Guy.
The cast, on the other hand, is top tier. Hathaway, right now the busiest lady in show business, shows us a darker side. Verity’s gift as an author is the ability to get inside the mind of villainous people. She maintains a pleasant façade in interviews or in front of her family, but there’s something dark beneath the surface. The façade cracks after her children are born. It’s her insecurity coming to light. It’s a finely nuanced performance. Johnson keeps getting better and better as an actress. She has qualities of both parents, Melanie Griffith’s ability to radiate innocence and Don Johnson’s natural fit into the film noir world. As Lowen, you’re never quite sure what’s going on in her mind. With this role, I do believe Hartnett has become an A-list actor. He has a knack for playing seemingly ordinary characters who might not be ordinary.
I didn’t mind Verity even though it’s flawed. It’s never actually boring. It oozes with class yet isn’t afraid to get its hands dirty. It has sex and nudity like any respectable erotic thriller should. It has a talented and attractive cast. It has a glossy look to it. The Crawford home is amazing. But like I said, it’s just too predictable. However, you should probably take that with a grain of salt. I’m hardly surprised by movies anymore. Nine times out of ten I can figure them out before the big reveal. Verity is for audiences looking for a fun ride of a thriller. It’s that to some degree. Like I said, it’s going to do well.
