In the classic Dear Abby columns, the original author’s daughter started co-writing the column in 1987 and actually took over column in 2000 in order to keep the spirit of it alive. Ghost writers are nothing new, even classics like The Count of Monte Cristo had help with some uncredited authors. When things are not what they seem, that is where Verity comes into play.
Directed by Michael Showalter (The Big Sick) and a cast that includes Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, Josh Hartnett, Brady Wagner, and Irina Dvorovenko, Verity Crawford (Hathaway), one of the top authors in the world, is living a great life with her husband, Jeremy (Hartnett). After she has an automobile accident that leaves her basically catatonic, another up-and-coming author named Lowen (Johnson) is hired by her publisher to ghost write the rest of the book series Verity was working on. Lowen ends up going to Vermont to live with them in order to understand her process, and things spiral out of control on a number of fronts.
From a cast standpoint, this film is pretty much just Hathaway, Johnson, and Hartnett, who do well with good chemistry, but there was nothing here that made me want to recognize more than normal. Given the nature of the role and how much different is what we are used to from her, Hathaway could be considered, but if it were up to me, it would be a “no”. The cinematography was solid, and even kind of plays itself as a tourism ad that hooked me in.
The script is fine, but it’s just too slow. At just under two hours, it seems like there was a bunch of filler footage put in to get it to that run time. There are a few plot twists, but most of them were badly telegraphed. Honestly, I felt like this was promoted as a horror/thriller, but it really falls short, trying too much to be like films like Gone Girl. Did I love Verity? No, but I did not hate it either, so I will recommend it to be watched at home on a cable or streaming.