I must admit that I was curious about Verity based on the trailer so it did its job. Verity has a relatively simple premise but it basically asks what is truthful and what is a lie and given that the story features authors, it is perhaps the occupation for this type of story.
Anne Hathaway plays the titular Verity who is a successful author who was involved in a car accident and has been left in a catatonic state. Josh Hartnett plays her husband Jeremy who looks after her and their son Crew following the loss of their daughter Harper. Dakota Johnson plays Lowen who is a struggling author who is given the opportunity to help finish Verity's books.
There is something about Dakota Johnson that p work for me. I don't think she's a terrible actress but whatever she is in I just think that there is someone better that could have had the role. But then I don't think that her casting ruins a film. There is something about Josh Hartnett that instantly makes me think he is playing a bad guy, either up from bad or in the case of this film discretely. Anne Hathaway does well with Verity. On the fact of it the character is a cold and horrible person but what Hathaway does is still may the character likeable and even when the truth comes out about what she did and why she pretended to be in a vegetative state, she is still a likeable person.
It was obvious that Jeremy was responsible for the car accident that Verity was in and it was also obvious that Verity was faking her comatose state but the reason why makes her come across in a good way whilst Jeremy and Lowen come across as the villains of the story but to be honest I found all of them to be unlikeable to varying degrees. This means that as a viewer, I'm not sure who I am supposed to be rooting for. I suppose the ambiguous morals of the characters makes it a bit more interesting to tell a story about.
The idea of setting the film in one location is one of the few things I liked about the film. Singular settings are always good for me cause it means that your focus is one what is going on and not worrying about anything or anyone else. The house that features in the film is quite nice although it looks awful from the outside. The snowy setting also helps make the house a nice setting.
I thought Verity was ok. It wasn't anything spectacular and the performances were good enough so I wasn't bored even at how flimsy and predictable the plot was. I haven't read the book that this is based on so I don't know how faithful the film is to the source material (or not) but its a perfectly fine thriller but I suspect there are probably better thrillers out there.