Verity

I can understand why BookTok-to-besteller author Colleen Hoover wrote a book about a bestselling author. And I can understand why two of Hollywood’s most accomplished and talented actresses would want to produce and star in a book by a best-selling author with two juicy parts for women. But ooof, despite Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson doing their best, this movie is a dumb, dull, dud.

Let’s start with one of the most misbegotten meet-cutes in movie history. Movies love to have a fun situation bring two characters together for the first time. In “Verity,” Lowen (Johnson) is an author whose book-signing attracted only three people, one who left when she got a phone call. Her agent has set up an important meeting with a publisher and she wants to get there in time. She is almost there when suddenly, she is drenched in blood when a woman is hit by a car. A handsome bystander (Josh Hartnett) takes her into a bathroom to help her clean up and even gives her the literal shirt off his back. Somehow in this brief conversation, he tells her that his eight-year-old daughter was drowned in a lake and she responds, “My mother just died.”

Lowen rushes to the meeting, and can you guess who’s in the room? Yes, in a new shirt, the very same guy. He is Jeremy Crawford, the husband of wildly popular author Verity Crawford (Hathaway), whose books are, in the world of this film, unique because they are from the villain’s point of view. Verity was in a car accident and is unable to get her new book done in time for the deadline. The publisher is looking for an NDA-bound writer “of the same genre” to finish the book.

At first, Lowen says no. But Jeremy tells her that Verity loves Lowen’s book, and soon she is moving into the Crawford’s lavish country house in snowy Vermont, with architectural details along the roof making it look like a buzzsaw, as though it is an omen or something. Lowen meets the Crawford’s young son, Crew (these names!) and Verity’s nurse, Anna (Irina Dvorovenko). Verity is paralyzed and mute, unable to communicate. Lowen has to sort through all of the notes for the book on her own. She finds a hidden thumb drive that contains Verity’s memoir, with a disturbing description of her selfishness and neediness.

It gets more disturbing and Jeremy gets more intriguing and Lowen either thinks she sees Verity standing and looking at her or….

There are too many shots of people holding beverages. Parallels of hands being pricked and mouths being cut/bitten are not as meaningful as they intend. There are some very funny flashbacks as we see Verity at the height of her fame, interviews about her books with the media big three — Gayle King, Alex Cooper, and Sean Evans on “Hot Ones.” It’s turgid and it’s slow. Which is bad because it gives you more time to think about how unimaginative it is and wonder why a child who is supposed to be at least eight years old i is clearly younger, why Lowen always wears black nail polish and when it will be over so you can go home.

Parents should know that this movie has nudity and explicit sexual situations, graphic and disturbing images, very strong language, reference to suicide, murder, drinking, pills, and smoking.

Family discussion: What would this movie be like if it was presented as the villain’s point of view? What made Verity’s books so popular? What will happen next?

If you like this, try: Colleen Hoover’s book and the other movies based on her books, “It Ends With Us” and “Regretting You.”