Verity Review: Dakota Johnson Thriller Falls Apart — SkimNews
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- Dakota Johnson stars as Lowen, a struggling writer hired to secretly ghostwrite novels for mega-bestselling author Verity Crawford in a film adapted by Nick Antosca from Colleen Hoover's novel.
- Anne Hathaway plays the title role as Verity, a wheelchair-bound, unable-to-speak bestseller whose husband Jeremy is played by Josh Hartnett, with the story set in a Vermont lakeside home.
- The plot pivots on Lowen finding two manuscripts — including one that hints at a 'terrifying situation' the world doesn't know about — driving the narrative's central mystery.
- The reviewer criticizes the third act as disintegrating into 'substandard plot points,' with a sinister nurse character played by Irina Dvorovenko bafflingly vanishing and a 'lamely unresolved' ending.
- The review frames the film as Johnson returning to her 'Fifty Shades ingenue-cute territory' and initially shows 'cheeky hints of Daphne du Maurier and Brian De Palma' before the film 'gradually unwinds,' concluding 'this needed a new draft.'
Why it matters: Colleen Hoover's novels are publishing juggernauts, and the reviewer's verdict — that 'Verity' started with a 'sensational opening sequence' but collapsed into plot holes and a flimsy ending — frames the adaptation as a missed commercial opportunity that disappointed despite strong genre appetite (the review cites Paul Feig's 'The Housemaid' as proof of demand). For Dakota Johnson, it marks another erotic-thriller outing that the critic says recalls rather than transcends her 'Fifty Shades' work.
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