After years of anticipation, Hoover’s ‘Verity’ hits the big screen

This month, the film adaptation of Verity by Colleen Hoover finally premiered in theaters, drawing excitement for many readers of Hoover’s novel.

There are many Hoover fans at OH who have awaited this film for ages. Personally? I have been waiting since seventh grade. 

After Hoover’s film adapted book It Ends With Us in 2023, her book adaptations are known for their excellent casting. For Verity, the internet was ecstatic over the selection of famous actors like Dakota Johnson as the lead Lowen Ashley, Josh Hartnett as Jeremy Crawford, and Anne Hathaway as Verity Crawford. 

Verity is a drama about struggling author Lowen Ashley. After the famous author Verity Crawford suffered a car accident, her husband Jeremy is on the lookout for a ghostwriter for the rest of the renowned series. Jeremy choses Lowen, who must move into their house in order to get her notes for the series together. 

After a couple days, Lowen discovers major secrets, traumatizing experiences, and an unexpected romance. Her stay changes everyone’s lives. 

“I have never read the book, so I had no idea what the storyline was about,” said OH senior Ashley Hahn, “but I was very shocked to see how many plot twists there were and just kind of some jump scares throughout.”

This movie has an IMDb rating of 6.0 out of 10. Many critics, like Jeanette from the New York Times, believe that Verity was an attempt at a thriller, but turned out more like a comedy. Because I personally loved the book and am fond of somewhat cheesy stories, I would rate it higher at 8.5 out of 10. 

Maybe Verity is not good enough for the critics or an award film for those deep analyzers. But, for a regular teenage girl, this film was fun. 

“I was a little bored in the beginning, but I feel like as there were more pivotal scenes, I got more excited to see what was going to happen next,” said Hahn, who did not read the book. 

On the other hand, I was hooked from the beginning as I enjoyed picking out the scenes I remembered from the book and confirming if they had aligned with the way I imagined them, and they did. 

The details of the vibes of the cabin, the state of Lowen’s apartments, the lake in the yard, and the features of the characters make it noticeable that there was a great effort to make this film an accurate adaptation. 

“I thought the book was enticing, and scary,” said OH senior Alaina Bisgrove. “I thought [the scenes] were acted out well.”

A part of cheesy romance works is that the quotes are not profound and intense. But that is kind of what makes them an easy read and an easy watch.

A surprising difference from the book was the spooky mood that was portrayed. The book does play some mind games, but the spooky mood gets revealed towards the end, differing from the film. Even though I knew the ending, some scenes still startled me.

“It exceeded [my expectations] a little bit,” said OH senior Melanie Imbrojev.

In this film, like most film adaptations, there are a multitude of important details that got left out, which is naturally a little disappointing.

“I would recommend this film,” said Bisgrove. “And for those who have read the book, the movie was good, but they definitely could have added those left out scenes that were talked about in the book.” 

This movie had talented authors and a setting that really set a mysterious mood. Symbolism and many different repeated motifs were intricately placed, making this a captivating film.

Fans of the book were amused, and those who hadn’t read the book were pleasantly surprised. On the other hand, some are displeased by the boring script, cheesiness, left out details, and lousy attempt at a thriller. 

Overall, having read the book or not, the audience is in for a big mystery, making it a perfect watch for this Halloween season.

Verity is currently playing at Kendall 11’s Classic Cinemas in Oswego.