Verity Review

Indie writer Lowen Ashleigh (played by Dakota Johnson) is hired to ghostwrite famous author Verity Crawford's (played by Anne Hathaway) popular book series after an accident leaves Crawford in an almost vegetarian state. While seemingly having a romantic connection with Verity‘s husband (played by Josh Harnett), Lowen discovers some of Verity’s notes that could lead to a darker conspiracy.

The cast is all really good, the standout being Hathaway, who plays Veirty as very manipulative and hard to pin down as far as her motives and personality; we spend a lot of time questioning what’s going on with her.

Dakota Johnson is very good at playing an arachidonic and like a sarcastic character and does a lot of good facial reacting while reading Vicky's notes.

Josh Hartnett brings a lot of laid-back charm and heart to his character, and despite the fact his character is possibly starting a romance with a woman while his wife is in a vegetative state, you always have a certain level of sympathy for him, which is a fine line to ride at the movie does well.

Most of the film takes place in a lovely lakeside mansion, which the crew takes full advantage of photographing. And the overall film direction was very cozy yet claustrophobic at the same time.

The way the story plays with people's perception of events and all the twists and turns goes very uniquely and intriguingly and is great at bringing the audience into the mystery.

Speaking of the mystery, I was very impressed with the film's pacing because the mystery unfolds in a slow-burn manner, but never to the point where it gets boring, everything on phones in a very natural and mostly believable way

I will say the film's big twist does go in some pretty interesting directions. I didn’t quite guess; they do stretch believability a little bit, but not to the point that it breaks.

The film did leave me a little bit wanting, like wanting to know what happens next, not sure if there’s a sequel book we might get, but it does leave things in a very interesting place.

Verity takes a very simple premise and, with a very good cast and fun/juicy surprises for the audience, makes an entertaining and intriguing mystery film. I give it a high three stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️. It's not the biggest mindblower, but it is a good time