Verity (2026)
In the opening of Verity, writer Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson) is splattered with blood when a bicyclist is fatally hit by a car right in front of her. The debonair Jeremy Crawford (Josh Hartnett) quickly grabs Lowen to help her clean up. That's how they meet-cute, so this gives the initial impression that this movie is going to have an edge. Well, it doesn't. In fact, Verity is one of the worst erotic thrillers since Sliver (1993) or Color of Night (1994).
Jeremy is the husband of bestselling novelist Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway), and he wants to hire Lowen as a ghostwriter to continue writing his wife's series of popular books. You see, Verity was involved in a debilitation car accident soon after a family tragedy.
Lowen reluctantly agrees, and Jeremy invites her to the isolated family house where he and Verity live. While doing research, Lowen discovers a manuscript that may shed some light on past incidents and dark secrets in Verity's real life.
To say more about the plot would give too much away. Just know that the many plot twists are improbable, not to mention laugh-out-loud ridiculous. This is based on a book by Colleen Hoover, author of It Ends with Us, and the clumsy screenplay is by Nick Antosca. The film has several huge plot holes that can't be ignored. For instance, there is a nurse/nanny character who would seem to know some important information, but she inexplicably disappears from the film before the final act. Directing this crapfest is Michael Showalter from MTV's The State. He's a good director who made The Big Sick (2017) and The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021), but he doesn't seem like the right filmmaker for an erotic thriller.
On this
project, Hathaway is a producer and Johnson serves as an executive producer.
What did they see in this material? The material is trash, and it's not
so-bad-it's-good, campy trash, either.
