The opening reels of Verity are enough to tell you that this is not going to be a conventional thriller. Verity Crawford is introduced through an interview as the best-selling author on the planet. She calls her success a miracle, only for the interviewer to point out that the miracle has been built on villains. Verity is quite open about the darkness of her writing. She says some people have even gone to the extent of calling her a sociopath because of what she writes. Most of her books, we are told, are written from the villain’s point of view. It is a rather clever way of preparing you for what is to follow.
The first sequence itself sets the mood. The background music is subtle and never tries too hard to tell you what you should be feeling. Michael Showalter uses it sparingly. In fact, what stayed with me more were the portions where there is no music at all. That silence becomes almost loud and, in a thriller like this, silence can be far more unsettling than a loud background score. The film knows when to let the silence take over.
Stories are a narrator’s medium. Their impact depends largely on how they are narrated and, more importantly, on how much the narrator chooses to reveal. You never really know how much of the truth you are being given. Verity plays on this idea rather effectively.
This is a novel adapted into a film about a writer whose strength lies in manipulative storytelling. And that manipulation slowly extends to the audience. You begin watching with your own instincts intact. Then the narration takes over. You start believing what you are being told, you begin looking at the characters through the narrator’s eyes and, somewhere along the way, you start questioning your own first reaction. What you initially suspected no longer seems right. What you had dismissed starts looking possible. That is where Verity gets under your skin.
Showalter uses many of the familiar devices of the psychological thriller, but interestingly, it is what he chooses not to use that works particularly well. The silence, the setting and the overall environment create an uneasy atmosphere without constantly pushing the audience towards a reaction. The locations themselves add to the drama. The house, its surroundings and the isolation become part of the storytelling rather than merely serving as a backdrop.
The film keeps you in that uncomfortable space where you want to believe something and yet don’t want to believe it at the same time. You think you have figured something out, only to find yourself reconsidering it a little later. That constant uncertainty keeps the narrative moving.
The climax is where Verity takes its biggest leap. It is chilling, unbelievable and presented with enough conviction to leave you with that rare reaction of wondering what exactly you have just experienced. The film does take certain liberties in getting there, and those can certainly be debated. Personally, I was willing to let them go because the payoff worked for me. The shock comes less from simply revealing something unexpected and more from the realisation that the film has been playing with your perception for quite some time.
The performances make that manipulation possible. The actors settle into their characters with surprising ease, but Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson are the real revelations. Both understand the ambiguity of their characters and never give away more than they need to. Their performances keep you guessing and, importantly, keep the uncertainty alive.
By the end, you realise that Verity has been asking you to trust a narrator whose greatest weapon is the ability to make you believe. You follow the story, accept its version of events and gradually stop trusting your own instincts.
And when the film finally pulls the rug from under you, the reaction is less about whether you saw the twist coming and more about how completely you allowed yourself to be taken along.
That, for me, is what makes Verity work. It doesn’t merely tell you a story. It makes you believe it.
Movie: Verity
Directed by: Michael Showalter
Screenplay by: Nick Antosca
Based on: Verity by Colleen Hoover
Featuring: Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, Josh Hartnett, Brady Wagner
Cinematography: Jim Frohna
Edited by: Jay Cassidy
Music by: Volker Bertelmann
Theatrical Release Date: October 2, 2026
Run Time: 1hr 57mins
Verity
3.5
