Verity Review: Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson Shine in Twisted Thriller
Verity turns a disturbing manuscript, a mysterious author and a complicated family into a glossy psychological thriller powered by Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson.
Michael Showalter’s Verity takes viewers into a luxurious but deeply unsettling family home, where struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh, played by Dakota Johnson, is hired to complete the bestselling books of Verity Crawford, portrayed by Anne Hathaway. Verity is unable to communicate after an accident, but a disturbing manuscript gives her a powerful voice—and possibly reveals dark secrets about her family.
As Lowen reads the manuscript, she becomes increasingly drawn into its disturbing account of Verity’s marriage to Jeremy and the tragic events surrounding their children. The central mystery keeps shifting: is the manuscript a brutally honest confession, fiction, or something designed to manipulate everyone who reads it?
Johnson gives Lowen enough curiosity and vulnerability to make her increasingly complicated choices believable, while Hathaway embraces Verity’s ambiguity with a performance that often steals the spotlight. Their dynamic becomes more compelling than the film’s romantic triangle, especially as storytelling itself becomes a weapon.
The film occasionally slips into familiar erotic-thriller territory, complete with glamorous settings, suspicious glances, forbidden attraction and conveniently timed revelations. Basically, everyone is attractive, everyone has secrets, and apparently nobody believes in simply communicating.
Despite its uneven screenplay, Verity works best as a pulpy, atmospheric thriller. Its biggest questions about truth, authorship, female desire and who gets believed are stronger than some of its twists. The film releases in India on October 2, 2026.
