Verity Feels Like a Cheap Imitation of Films Gone By

Nowadays, people don’t court and take the time to really get know one another or their families.  Does your significant other have a history of mental illness in their family, abuse with a facade of inexplicable kindness that feels too good to be true.  An old boyfriend of mine seemed too good to be true.  It was like a fairytale come to life just for me.  The lavish gifts, rose petal drawn baths, gourmet home-cooked meals and a credit account for me to use as I wished.

My Mom often told me if something feels too good to be true – it usually is or like Hoover says in her novel, “I think the idea of me is better than the reality of me.”

Adapted from Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novel of the same name, this seductive, psychological thriller follows renowned author Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway) and Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson), a struggling writer who relocates to the remote Crawford estate to ghostwrite for Verity.

After Lowen uncovers what appears to be Verity’s chilling autobiographical notes, she wrestles with the disturbing and twisted confessions about Verity’s husband Jeremy (Josh Hartnett), and finds it hard to separate fiction from reality, manipulation from attraction, and opportunity from obsession.

On the surface, this feels like a really fun psychological experience.  In reality, this film borrows tropes from so many other films like “Gone Girl” or “Double Jeopardy” with an uneven soap opera-ish edge to it that makes even the most simple of circumstances absurd.  It was giving a not so interesting updated version of V.C. Andrews’ “Flowers in the Attic” storylines.

Dakota Johnson has a dry, quiet sensuality that works for every character she inhabits.  In this instance, however, it makes her appear cold without not much depth lurking underneath the surface.

Anne Hathaway, is diabolically divine, yet under utilized for a majority of the film.  Josh Hartnet is engaging enough, but had a hard time believing he was that clueless and vulnerable.

At the end of the day Verity falls into the trappings of it own definition of a  fundamental belief being accepted as a universal truth.