For all the talk about the run of films Robert Pattinson has been on in 2026, we shouldn’t sell Anne Hathaway’s year short either; putting out five movies is no small feat!
“Verity” is the latest adaptation of one of Colleen Hoover’s novels, and follows a young author (Dakota Johnson) who is hired to serve as a ghostwriter for a best-selling author (Anne Hathaway) after an accident leaves her paralyzed; Josh Hartnett plays Hathaway’s husband while Michael Showalter directs.
So far, all of Colleen Hoover’s films have been “fine, meh, whatever” romances, the best one being this spring’s “Reminders of Him.” “Verity” is noted for being Hoover’s lone thriller and fan-favorite among her readers, but even the switch-up in genres doesn’t change much as far as the quality of the feature adaptation, as “Verity” is neither dark nor campy enough to stand out.
I’ve always been a big Anne Hathaway fan, so 2026 has been a treat for me. Starting with her weird A24 film “Mother Mary” in April, Hathaway has seemingly been in a movie every month: “Devil Wears Prada 2” (May), “The Odyssey” (July), “The End of Oak Street” (August) and now “Verity.” She’ll no doubt be most remembered for her likely-Oscar nominated performance in “Odyssey,” but it has been a diverse slate of films and a welcome return for one of our bigger movie stars following a run of supporting performances in quickly-forgotten films. As the titular paralyzed Verity, Hathaway is largely relegated to sitting in a chair and staring into the distance, though she is given some narration monologues to deliver in a seductive tone, and narrates her manuscripts with menacing delight.
Dakota Johnson catches some flack for often delivering flat performances, and here she is… fine, she unfortunately won’t be beating the allegations this time around. I think Johnson has shown she is capable of being charming and possesses a nice sense of dry humor (she’s really good in the romcoms “How to Be Single” and “Cha Cha Real Smooth”), though this is not the kind of role that requires those skills. Johnson is kind of just… there, content delivering lines with her scene partners and sitting silently reading to herself, and Hathaway and a game Josh Hartnett can only carry her so much (she’s not explicitly bad, but it’s just not a commanding lead performance).
These sorts of movies-kind of campy, kind of messed up domestic thrillers- have always been popular, from Paul Feig’s recent “A Simple Favor” and “The Housemaid” all the way back to “Serial Mom,” “Single White Female,” and “Gone Girl.” Sometimes they strike the perfect balance of over-the-top twisty and darkly humorous, but other times there is an uneven blend of genres. “Verity” falls more into the latter category for me, because pretty much all of the big reveals and rug pulls are shoved to the back-end of the film, and while I did appreciate some of the bait-and-switch moments and recontextualizations, they were largely too little too late, and Micahel Showalter (known for romcoms like “The Big Sick” and “Lovebirds”) is not a good enough director to pull of the big moments.
“Verity” will satisfy book club girlies and lesser-demanding genre fans (though the apparent changes they made from the novel feel odd and pointless), but I kept waiting for it to crank up the weird or camp, and neither dial moved until it was too late. Hathaway and Hartnett, two actors who are often the best part of the film they’re in (Hartnett is the co-MVP of “Oppenheimer”), try their best, but the film’s screenplay and direction lack the bite to amk this anything more than a movie of the week.
Critics Rating: 5/10
