At first glance, Anne Hathaway and bestselling author Colleen Hoover might not appear to have all that much in common. Look a little closer, though, and both have been remarkably prolific in their respective fields. Hathaway has appeared in five films this year, while Hoover has amassed an extensive back catalogue of novels and novellas. It seems only fitting that their paths should cross on the silver screen in Verity. And while this adaptation of Hoover’s bestselling novel hits plenty of familiar thriller notes, it is Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett who make it worth watching.

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Struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson) receives a career-changing opportunity to complete a bestselling series after its author, Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway), is incapacitated in an accident. While staying at the remote Crawford estate and sorting through Verity’s work, Lowen discovers a disturbing personal account filled with unsettling revelations about the author’s life and family. As she grows increasingly attracted to Verity’s husband, Jeremy (Josh Hartnett), professional boundaries dissolve and the assignment becomes a dangerous web of desire, suspicion and buried secrets, leaving Lowen unsure how much of what she has read - or experienced - can be trusted.
 

Verity shares much of its cinematic sensibility with the thrillers you might have caught in the 1990s. Its setup, structure and increasingly tangled relationships strike familiar chords as it thunders towards a twisting final act. There is enjoyment to be found in that familiarity, particularly as the film encourages you to question the people at the centre of its story.

While it does a reasonable job of establishing its twists and turns, a few more carefully scattered red herrings would have given the final act greater weight. The foundations laid in the first two acts could have been stronger, making the eventual revelations feel more satisfying.

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What works is less the construction of the story than the way the filmmakers choose to tell it. They lean heavily into the illicit romance, ramping up the attraction and giving Verity a pulsating energy. At times, it relies more on sexiness than substance, allowing the heat between its characters to do work that a more developed narrative might otherwise have carried.

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That is not to say Verity isn’t a good watch. It is a solid thriller and I still entered its final act without being completely certain how everything would end. It keeps you guessing; I simply wanted the journey there to give its conclusion a little more punch.

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What makes Verity particularly enjoyable is its cast. Johnson brings a wide-eyed quality to Lowen, capturing a writer who appears somewhat naïve as she enters a world far removed from her own. It is familiar territory for Johnson, and she plays it well.

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Hartnett provides what initially seems to be the solid figure at the centre of the uncertainty. There is a steadiness to Jeremy that makes Lowen’s attraction understandable, even as the film leaves us questioning just how dependable he really is.

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Hathaway, meanwhile, delivers something quite different from much of what we have seen from her before, including across her substantial body of work this year. To explain too much would spoil the pleasure of discovering it, but she is brilliant in the role.
 

A solid, seductive thriller that could have given its twists more weight, Verity is made thoroughly watchable by Johnson, Hartnett and a brilliant Hathaway.