If recent adaptations of Colleen Hoover novels have lived or died by their ability to translate melodrama into believable romance, then the bizarre first teaser for “Verity” suggests something less literal and more dangerous. Directed by Michael Showalter and led by the hypnotic Anne Hathaway, the upcoming psychological thriller from Amazon MGM Studios flips the script used for most Hoover movies.
Where projects like “It Ends With Us” and “Reminders of Him” leaned into earnest, often devastating, human heartbreak, “Verity” swaps the benefits of a tearjerker for the creative risks of a fever dream. Hyper-stylized and overtly sinister, the new trailer opens on Dakota Johnson drifting through a shadowy, intimate home wearing a silk robe. The beat is knowingly Hoover-esque, gesturing toward familiar dramatic territory between lovers — before violently swerving in a more genre-forward direction.
A sexy kiss on the couch with Josh Hartnett blossoms into pure terror when Johnson recoils from a bite and sees Hathaway looking back at her. The performance demands an eerie presence from the actress that’s impossible to pin down here, and that slipperiness should prove the main hook in “Verity.” Who’s the villain? Who’s the victim? Or is there something more diabolical at play?
In Hoover’s original novel, Lowen (Johnson) is a struggling writer who gets pulled into the allure of game designer Jeremy Crawford (Hartnett) after she agree to finishing drafting a series for his injured wife. Verity (Hathaway) is a best-selling author, whose unpublished manuscript reveals a profoundly fractured inner life, and the gig positions Lowen as both an audience surrogate and unreliable narrator.
The film’s early marketing leans heavily into that ambiguity, even as Hathaway’s semi-distorted voiceover warns in the teaser, “There is no light where we’re going. Darkness ahead.” Reduced to mere glimpses for the promo, her role is still the gravitational force driving the project — suggesting Hathaway’s performance will be key to bridging the gap between campy erotic thriller and prestige horror.
That alone raises the film’s most pressing question: What makes “Verity” worth telling twice? For Showalter, whose past work has rarely ventured this far into fear, the challenge will be sustaining a coherent tone without losing the emotional highs and lows that define Hoover as a storyteller. Of course, if the trailer is any indication, “Verity” doesn’t care about pleasing her so-called fans at all.
From Amazon MGM Studios, “Verity” is in theaters October 2. Watch the trailer below.
Source:
www.indiewire.com
