Is Verity a secret comedy?

We are two-thirds of the way through Anne Hathaway’s Big Year. Her penultimate film of 2026, The End of Oak Street, opens this Friday, and in October comes her final film, Verity, Michael Showalter’s adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s novel of the same name. A new trailer for Verity dropped yesterday, and the vibes remain excellent.

Watching this new trailer, I wonder if Michael Showalter, who has an extensive comedy background, might do something akin to A Simple Favor with Verity. Colleen Hoover is almost a self-parody already, and Verity has a certain look about it, like it’s so perfectly calibrated to be a stereotypical “crazy wife” drama, that it makes me wonder if there is a Comedy Surprise hiding at the heart of Verity. Maybe not, after all, The Idea of You was a straightforward romantic drama, but I feel like Verity is either Doing A Thing, or it’s Colleen Hoover’s Stupidest Plot.

The main case for Verity being a backdoor parody is Michael Showalter directing and, well, look at this trailer and tell me you don’t think there’s a chance Verity ends up being funny. The real question is whether or not that humor ends up being intentional or not. The case for Verity being a straightforward thriller is that I don’t think Colleen Hoover has actually reached the self-parody stage yet, and the screenwriter of Verity is Nick Antosca.

Antosca is a former writer on Hannibal, and he is the creator/showrunner of A Friend of the Family, the Peacock series about the double kidnapping of Jan Broberg, and the new Apple TV+ series adaptation of Cape Fear. Nick Antosca has a narrative preoccupation with crime and especially psychologically twisted crime, so him adapting Verity means it could be exactly what it appears to be: a normal adaptation of a popular mystery novel.

But I hope it’s the secret comedy thing. Because while Verity is big on vibes, any time I try to lock in on the plot, as it is presented here, my mind goes, No, surely not, that CANNOT be it. Which is pretty much my reaction to every Colleen Hoover plot. I’m just hoping Michael Showalter makes something more of it, I guess.