The latest in a long line of recent Colleen Hoover adaptations has just arrived in cinemas – with Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson leading the cast of new thriller Verity.
The review embargo on the new film lifted earlier this week, and unfortunately the critical consensus is skewing negative.
At time of writing, it sits on a score of just 40 per cent on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 89 reviews, while on Metacritic the rating is currently 45.
This means that it is the fourth of four Hoover adaptations – following It Ends With Us, Regretting You and Reminders of Him – to be given a “Rotten” rating.
Among the publications to give negative verdicts are The Independent, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and Empire – all of whom gave it 2 stars – while Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and The New Yorker also provided unfavourable write-ups.
Our own Radio Times review was a slightly more positive – awarding it 3 stars and writing that director Micahel Showalter and screenwriter Nick Antosca “have well-preserved the addictive, trashy qualities of its airport-read source material”.
However, we added that it might have been a more sucessful offering by pushing a little further into its erotic thriller roots, “if it had indulged further into its campy, melodramatic, psychosexual tension instead of abandoning much of its pulp on the surface”.
Other outlets that gave Verity more positive write-ups included RogerEbert.com and IndieWire.
The official synopsis for the film reads: “Hired to be a ghostwriter for renowned author Verity Crawford (Hathaway), Lowen Ashleigh’s (Johnson) assignment takes a dark turn when she discovers chilling autobiographical notes.
“As she wrestles with disturbing and twisted confessions about Verity’s husband (Josh Hartnett), she soon finds it hard to separate fiction from reality, manipulation from attraction, and opportunity from obsession.”
Verity is now showing in UK cinemas.
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