Vibe checking Verity

Anne Hathaway’s big year continues with Verity, an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novel of the same name. It’s a psychological thriller starring Annie, Dakota Johnson, and Josh Hartnett, and it’s coming in October. Makes sense, the teaser, which dropped this week, is giving big Rebecca, Yellow Wallpaper, Kate Chopin vibes. Basically, anything that has ever touched on the unwellness of women in proximity to toxic men.

Annie stars as Verity Crawford, an author who cannot finish her book because of an accident. Dakota Johnson plays the improbably named Lowen Ashleigh—Colleen Hoover has a real problem giving fully grown characters names popular on playgrounds right now, there is no thirty-something “Lowen”, though I agree we should bring “Verity” back—and Josh Hartnett stars as Verity’s obviously creepy husband, Jeremy Crawford. I have not read the book, but I am guessing Jeremy tried to kill Verity and that was her “accident”. Don’t tell me how it really goes in the book, I know that’s it. Sure, there are probably twists and turns, but Colleen Hoover is not Edgar Allen Poe. The subtext is text with her.

Anyway, the teaser is cut exceptionally well to a creepy cover of Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”, a fitting song choice. What excites me most about Verity is that it is directed by Michael Showalter, who previously directed films like Hello, My Name is Doris, The Big Sick, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and The Idea of You, in which he also worked with Anne Hathaway. Showalter is also a veteran of the comedy troupe Stella, and he co-wrote Wet Hot American Summer and They Came Together. The man is smart, FUNNY, and a talented director. I am very interested to see what he makes of Colleen Hoover, especially after his very solid adaptation of Robbine Lee’s The Idea of You.

We are being fed a steady diet of Annie this year. Mother Mary is now in theaters, The Devil Wears Prada 2 opens Friday, The Odyssey is due in July, The End of Oak Street in August, and then Verity in October. Prada 2 and The Odyssey are expected to be big box office—The Odyssey may well end up one of the biggest films of the year—and Annie is front and center in all of these movies. This really is the year of Anne Hathaway: Movie Star. What I am enjoying about it so far is that there is no “Hathahate”. The culture finally caught up to Annie’s brand of earnestness and enthusiasm, and she is no longer being punished for being a theater kid in public. It only took a decade!

That said, I would pay good money to know what the real dynamic was like on set, between try-hard Annie (complimentary) and too-cool-for-school Dakota. They are very different personalities, but not necessarily automatically conflicting ones. Sometimes the earnest nerd and the too-cool kid get along really well. Sometimes, everything around them goes down in flames. I would love to know the vibes on Verity. As far as the film itself goes, the vibes in the teaser are solid, this looks like a great popcorn/psychological thriller. Verity looks so good, it will be easy to forget this is a Colleen Hoover adaptation.

Attached - Anne Hathaway promoting The Devil Wears Prada 2 in New York.