Verity reviews land as Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson star in Colleen Hoover thriller

Adaptation of the 2018 bestseller

The feature adaptation of Colleen Hoover's 2018 psychological thriller novel Verity has premiered, directed by Michael Showalter from a screenplay penned by Nick Antosca. Hoover, who also serves as a producer on the production, had written 16 romance novels before shifting genres to write and self-publish the original book in 2018. The release represents the fourth feature film adaptation based on Hoover's literary catalog in the span of two years. Her first three cinematic adaptations (It Ends With Us, Regretting You, and Reminders of Him) collectively generated more than $500 million at the box office. The new production expands Hoover's cinematic adaptations from domestic romantic dramas into erotic suspense.

Narrative and character dynamics

The narrative follows Lowen Ashleigh, portrayed by Dakota Johnson, a struggling writer summoned by publishers to ghostwrite the remaining installments of an ultra-popular book series. The series belongs to Verity Crawford, played by Anne Hathaway, a successful author who has been rendered catatonic following a car crash where she drove into a tree. Lowen moves into the Crawford family residence, a glass Jens Quistgaard mansion, where a stern Ukrainian nurse tube-feeds Verity and provides full-time medical care. Verity's husband, Jeremy Crawford, played by Josh Hartnett, manages the estate and raises their surviving young son alone after previously encountering Lowen at the scene of a street accident. While examining files in a locked desk drawer, Lowen discovers an unfinished, remorseless autobiography stored on a USB stick. The hidden memoir documents dark family secrets, including the circumstances surrounding the death of the couple's young daughter in a canoe accident.

Critical reaction to direction and performances

Initial film reviews published on 30 September 2026 evaluated the movie as an uneven psychological thriller styled after late-twentieth-century erotic potboilers. Critics noted that Showalter, who previously directed Hathaway in the romantic comedy The Idea of You, showed little natural affinity for the suspense genre, creating moments of unintentional comedy. Hathaway spends nearly all non-flashback scenes portraying a motionless, non-verbal patient, while Johnson plays Lowen with a cool, detached demeanor. In Antosca's screenplay, Johnson delivers lines commenting on her character's impassive expression. Reviewers drew frequent comparisons to another recent domestic thriller, Paul Feig's The Housemaid, which starred Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney.

Timeline of Colleen Hoover screen adaptations

Verity is the second film adaptation of Hoover's work released in 2026, arriving months after Reminders of Him, which starred Maika Monroe. The rapid cycle of adaptations began in 2024 with the theatrical release of It Ends With Us, which achieved high commercial returns before becoming embroiled in a public legal dispute between co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. The studio followed that release in 2025 with an adaptation of Regretting You. Verity tests the box office viability of Hoover's psychological thriller catalogue as producers evaluate future screen conversions of her bibliography.