Verity (MA) – 116 minutes

Sex sells and so it is with the fourth of Colleen Hoover’s novels to be turned into a film.

The most recent before Verity was Reminders of Him, before that Regretting You and, first up, It Ends With Us.

Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway) is one of the best-selling authors on the planet, whose success is built on taking the villains’ perspective in her work.

Married to the love of her life, Jeremy (Josh Hartnett), who is in real estate, the pair went on to have two children.

First came son Crew (Brady Wagner) and then daughter Harper (Sienna Kulovitz).

A tragic accident claimed the life of Harper and now, after a car accident, Verity has been left severely disabled, confined to a wheelchair.

She is attended to by a humourless nurse named Anna (Irina Dvoreovenko).

But Verity’s tragedy is being kept in-house (that is, not to be shared with the public).

With her golden streak of novels, Verity’s publishers, with the imprimatur of her husband, are looking for a ghost writer to take up where Verity left off.

And this is where another, largely unknown, writer, Lowen Asheigh (Dakota Johnson), comes in.

Jeremy tells Lowen that Verity admired her work and Lowen is subsequently engaged to turn out three books over the next two years.

Lowen moves into the Crawfords’ luxurious home in a secluded forest estate in Vermont.

She is given access to all of Verity’s manuscripts and notes, which are extensive.

As she begins her work, Lowen discovers a chilling, unpublished work that indicates Harper’s untimely death wasn’t an accident, rather a cold and calculated plan.

That, after Verity expresses in writing her increasing fear that Jeremy is no longer as attracted to her.

Lowen is shocked and sickened.

But wait, there’s more.

Lowen suspects that Verity is not in a vegetative state, after all, but faking it most effectively.

This, as Lowen becomes ever closer to Jeremy.

I dare say that without the three big names in the cast, this could have been a straight to streaming release.

As it is, it is a suitably twisted offering that has no shortage of turns to keep an audience engaged.

Sure, there are many signposts along the way in Nick Antosca’s (Antlers) screenplay, but I readily went along for the ride.

Verity (the movie) is a good-looking endeavour, in terms of the stars featured and the stunning setting where most of the action takes place.

Anne Hathaway impresses with her sharply contrasting representation of a strong, confident woman with the world at her feet and a helpless victim.

As Lowen, Dakota Johnson too undergoes a metamorphosis – from vulnerable to a mistress of her own fate.

And then there is the doting husband and father, Jeremy. Josh Hartnett readily leans into that persona, including steaming up the screen with both women.

At the heart of Verity is manipulation, which Michael Showalter (The Idea of You) directs imaginatively.

The question is who is manipulating who?

Psychological thrillers are my favourite genre, so I was a sucker in plain sight for this one. In short, it is wicked fun.

Rated MA, while Verity doesn’t rewrite the art form, it is an easy watch and scores a 7 out of 10.