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If only this movie knew how ridiculous it is. If only he was so stupid on purpose. Verity, and if you have n't seen the movie yet but are planning to, don't worry-this video is safe to watch because, like all of my new movie reviews, it will be spoiler-free. Verity is a new thriller, horror film, erotic, maybe something in between, starring Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and Josh Hartnett-three incredibly talented actors. They have all done great work in their careers, and Anne Hathaway has had a particularly eventful year. Earlier this year, she starred in the long-awaited- some would say overdue- sequel to The Devil Wears Prada. She was fantastic as Penelope in
Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, and now she's here in Verity as the main character, Verity Crawford, a best-selling author who has experienced some personal tragedy or accident that has left her unable to continue writing. And here comes Dakota Johnson as an ambitious, driven young writer hired to help Verity complete her contract novels and finish her bestselling series, as well as Josh Hartnett as her husband. The point is, this movie should either be less " trashy" and try to be a more elevated, sophisticated, intellectual, or at least a mid- intellectual thriller, or it should be a hundred times more "trashy" than it is now. Because in its current form, the film is quite cheap, and its most interesting moments are precisely these cheap episodes. But there are
too few such moments, and the film makes us wait too long for them, and what it shows when it doesn't show this " cheapness" is mostly something completely uninteresting. You know, I think we should find this interesting. We have to think that this look at the life and mind of Verity Crawford's character is very captivating and compelling, and that's what should keep us on edge, wondering what Dakota Johnson's character will do and what's wrong with Jeremy, her husband? Like, is he? He seems like such a great guy, a devoted husband to Verity and a really cool father to their son. He seems so conscientious, caring, confident, and reserved, and since
this is a movie, you think, " Well, there has to be some kind of subterfuge here, right?" This can't be all. There must be something more. Maybe there is, maybe there isn't, but a significant portion of the film keeps us wondering about it or waiting to see if something will happen. And as I sat in the movie theater, this waiting process didn't seem particularly fun, exciting, or interesting to me. The film does many things in an attempt to make us want or think. There's a dynamic between Jeremy and Loewen, played by Dakota Johnson, that starts out as a kind of flirtation, but then does n't quite work out. And the way their
relationship develops should hint to us that something will happen between them. It's like there's going to be a romance, or a one-night stand, or something, right? Someone will take a step forward, and something will begin. I think when that seed is planted in a story like this, the audience has to either want it to happen or not want it to happen and almost bite their nails, "Oh my god, I hope he doesn't do that." Or I hope she doesn't. Or hopefully they won't take this step, which we don't want, because it would be bad. You're supposed to worry about what they're doing. And I just didn't care. I was not involved in this at all. I didn't expect them to be together. I did n't expect them not to be. I
wasn't really interested in whether it would happen or not. And this, I think, is a problem throughout the film. The character of Verity herself is simply not a very interesting person for most of the film. And this is not at all a knock on Anne Hathaway, who, as I said, is a fantastic actress and gives a very good performance, but, you know, for most of the movie she really has almost nothing to do. There are moments here and where Verity looks like she's about to become a truly interesting character. And it was at this point that I started thinking, "Damn, I wish this movie was a lot trashier than it is." Man, I wish the creators of this movie realized what they had and just decided to, well, you know, sink it all in the
dirt. Make it as brazen, trashy, and vulgar as possible. Because that might not make it a better film from an artistic point of view, it would n't make it good by the standards by which we judge cinema, but it would be much more interesting to watch. He would have been much more entertaining than what we got. And I think it's bad when you watch a movie and think, "Damn, I wish it was a lot more trashy, you know." Man, I want these characters to be a lot crazier and the plot to be a lot weirder than it is. Somewhere in the middle of the movie, maybe a little past the middle, there's a scene where one of the characters. most of the movie takes place in Verity Crawford's house, right? And that's where the three main characters spend most of the film-in Verity
Crawford's house. She's a rich writer, so she has this beautiful big house on a lake in Vermont, in the middle of the woods, and it's, you know, very isolated. And I think we should perceive this place as something that inspires anxiety. And it definitely has architecture from a horror movie. Uh, when Dakota Johnson's character arrives, there's this really stupid tracking shot where she's led down the hallway to a bedroom, and then further down to Verity's office, where she'll be working. And there's a corridor like that, just like in horror movies. There is no rational reason why the hallway in this house, where normal people are supposed to live, has so many twists and turns, it's a house from a horror movie. Uh, I think the movie subconsciously
sets you up to think, "Oh, someone is bound to run down this hallway at some point." Someone will be running for their life down this corridor, and someone covered in blood with an axe will be chasing them. I would like to say that at least something interesting happens in the film. In short, there's a scene where they're in a house, a kind of house from a horror movie, where nothing so terrible happens. And one character says to another, "This house is crazy." Although this is not the case. At least we have n't seen that. The lives of Jeremy, Verity, and their son Crew are not crazy at all. anything strange, cruel is happening, that anyone is being held against their will, that anyone is begging for help or trying to
escape. The film gives us no reason to believe that anything disturbing, strange, unhealthy, violent, frightening, or dark is going on in this house. And yet there is a moment when one of the characters says: "This house is crazy, you have to escape from here, you deserve a normal life. You deserve a better life." And I want to ask: "What are you talking about anyway? Where, where, where did all this happen? Why didn't the movie show us this?" I would like him to show me. I wish this was just that kind of movie. I wish this was a much, much, much cheaper film than it actually is. Additionally, the film makes the mistake of making the main character a writer. In fact, there are two main characters- writers, but we only see the work of
one of them. We really only get a feel for Verity's style as a writer. And that brings us back to the beginning of the review: I wish the film had realized its worthlessness and been that on purpose. Because Verity is a bestselling author. But I still haven't figured out whether we should consider her a good writer. She is truly successful. She sells a lot of books. But should we think she's talented? Are we supposed to think she writes popular junk? Because there are moments when the characters speak of her as a truly worthy author. But then we hear excerpts from her works. Of course, this is all a matter of taste. But in my opinion, she's not that good a writer. Like, in fact, fragments of her works shown in the film. And there's a part of the film where we hear off-
screen and see a lot of Verity's lyrics on screen. There is nothing special about them. Of course, that doesn't mean that if she were a real person, she couldn't be a bestselling author. It's not like, you know, it seems completely implausible that she became a successful writer by writing what we saw. But if we are to consider her talented, then I have my doubts. And this is a line that movies often walk. You know, that's one of the dangers of making a film about a writer, when the words he writes end up in the frame. Because if, according to the plot, the character is a writer, and he must be very talented, and we see his texts that do not meet the stated level, it turns out that the film shows us something different than what we were
told. This is becoming a problem. This is definitely becoming a problem. And another problem is that forcing the viewer to read or listen to verbatim texts written by someone else, through subtitles or voice-over, is one of the most, or perhaps one of the least, cinematic things you can do in a movie. Well, unless they're subtitles and you're reading them through a language barrier because that's the only way to understand what's going on if you're watching a movie in a foreign language, that's another matter. This is what is necessary. But other than situations like this where you're putting a bunch of text on the screen or making a character read something someone else wrote just to add it to the story, that's not what
cinema is made for. This is not what a movie should do. If you have a lot of text you want to share with your audience, write a fucking book. This is not what cinema is made for. Cinema is an audiovisual medium. You should show us things, not tell us. And if your character is a writer, and the best way you can come up with to convey to us, the audience, that he's a writer and explain the essence of what he's written is to just put a bunch of text on the screen, or have the character read it to us, or have it voiced off- screen. then, to me, that's not convincing at all you know? So I want to say that the film has some problems.
The acting here is as good as it is possible with this kind of material. Um, Dakota Johnson is an actress who.she's one of those actors who often impressed me in bad movies. I find her to be a very intelligent actress, capable of conveying intelligence and wit, and I really regret that this film didn't give her more opportunities to do so. Again, as with Anne Hathaway, there are brief flashes when it seems like Dakota Johnson is about to do something that will let us see what a great actress she is. As if her character is about to do something funny, smart, wayward, flirtatious, or something else that will give her a chance to show us and remind us, "Oh, right.
She's a talented actress." But she just doesn't have anything special to do. The same goes for Josh Hartnett. Josh has racked up some impressive roles in mostly worthless films lately. And I think this one can be added to the list. He's a good actor, and it's nice to see him being cast in movies more often, because there was a period after he outgrew his teen idol phase when we hardly saw Josh Hartnett. And now he's starting to come back, to appear in the frame, and I'm very happy about that, because I really like him. And he played well in this film. But then again, these people simply have nothing to play for here, and this movie is not nearly as interesting as it seems. There are very, very long segments where we
just watch these characters live their not-so- interesting lives. And when things finally start to get a little exciting towards the end, we've been waiting so long that it all seems too little, too late. And right after the most interesting thing happens in the film, it instantly drowns in an endless stream of explanations, as we see the event and then have to digest absolutely everything. And I ca n't stand it when movies do that. Films, like narratives in general, and cinema in particular, are not meant to explain every bit of nonsense to the viewer. It's not necessary to make a character explain everything to us. It doesn't have to be a voiceover that says, "Okay,
now here's everything you just saw." Okay, that's what it meant." You don't have to do this. In fact, it only brings harm. And that definitely hurts this film. This only drags out the film. Because of this, it feels as if the film doesn't know when to end. So when it finally ends, the ending is anticlimaxing and you think, "Oh, we waited an extra 5 minutes for this? They could have finished then, but we had to listen to a bunch of explanations of everything that happened, and only then did we get to the end." Okay. You know, it's just This, um.This is a movie that ends on a note of searching for the truth. You know, I think the movie ends where it wants us to
ask questions, right? The movie is ending, and I think it wants us to sit in the theater seats or on the couch at home if you rent it or watch it on streaming. And we have to ask ourselves: "What really happened? Where is the truth? Did she really do what she said she would do, or was it something else? And who is really innocent and who is guilty? And yes, we should ask these questions as the film comes to an end. But, unfortunately for the creators, the only question I asked myself at the end was: was this a real film that wanted to be a cheap drama, or the other way around? Was it a cheap drama trying to appear as a serious film?
