Verity puts Anne Hathaway at the center of its advertising, but the criticism surrounding Amazon MGM Studios’ thriller raises a question about the man standing beside her: does Jeremy Crawford make the attraction driving this story convincing? A magnetic Verity can make another woman’s marriage look dangerous. She cannot, by herself, explain why that woman would want to enter it.
That distinction matters in a story about a writer hired to continue someone else’s work. Professional imitation already gives the premise an unsettling intimacy. The romantic relationship needs to deepen that discomfort, making desire feel specific enough to compete with the obvious reasons to leave.
Spoiler note: This is a critical analysis of the confirmed premise, publicly released dialogue, and reported scenes, rather than a firsthand screening review. It discusses the central relationships without revealing the ending.
What Verity asks its central relationship to carry
Directed by Michael Showalter and adapted from Colleen Hoover’s novel, Verity follows struggling author Lowen Ashleigh, played by Dakota Johnson. She moves into the Crawford estate to ghostwrite for injured bestselling novelist Verity Crawford, played by Hathaway. There, apparently autobiographical writing entangles her understanding of Verity with her attraction to Verity’s husband, Jeremy, played by Josh Hartnett. The studio lists an October 2, 2026, theatrical release. [Amazon MGM Studios’ film overview](https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/entertainment/verity-colleen-hoover-amazon-mgm-studios)
Jeremy consequently occupies several positions at once. He belongs to the household offering Lowen an extraordinary opportunity. He is also the husband whose marriage she is trying to understand and the person she finds desirable. An ordinary gesture from him can therefore carry professional, romantic, and ethical implications simultaneously.
The compelling question is how Lowen interprets those overlapping roles. Does his attention reassure her because she trusts his judgment? Does she experience it as recognition after professional disappointment? Or does being welcomed into this particular household make the attention valuable before she has really assessed the man offering it?
Those are different motives, with different consequences. A convincing erotic thriller lets us feel their uncomfortable coexistence.
Why an appealing husband needs an inner life
Polygon’s negative assessment, reproduced in a syndicated version of its review, identifies Hartnett’s comparatively muted Jeremy and Showalter’s restrained handling of the material as weaknesses beside the more conspicuous work of Hathaway and Johnson. That is a critic’s judgment, not an established fact about how every viewer will respond. Nevertheless, it identifies a useful structural concern: the romantic center may be less interesting than the women whose behavior revolves around it. [The reproduced review](https://wukeer.com/amazons-disappointing-new-thriller-has-one-fatal-flaw-even-anne-hathaway-cant-fix)
My reading of that concern is that attractiveness supplies only the beginning of Jeremy’s dramatic function. A handsome, attentive husband can explain immediate interest. Sustained obsession asks for something more particular: a shared understanding, an unsettling dependency, or a moment of recognition that Lowen cannot easily obtain elsewhere.
He also needs desires that exist independently of her response. What does he seek when he welcomes her? How does he understand the boundary between someone helping his wife and someone entering their private life? The story becomes richer when his conduct can be examined as a choice, rather than accepted as a convenient invitation.
This does not require explanatory speeches. A hesitation before offering reassurance, an unexpected refusal, or a change in behavior can establish a person’s competing loyalties. The key is that the audience should have something to interpret beyond his availability.
Lowen hears professional praise as something personal
The publicly released trailer supplies a revealing phrase: “a brilliant undiscovered voice.” Delivered as praise of Lowen’s writing, it describes exactly the kind of recognition a struggling author might crave. Another line, “Her fans know her voice,” immediately introduces the opposite pressure: Lowen’s opportunity depends on successfully reproducing another writer’s identity. [The trailer transcript](https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xb6jyzi)
Read together, those lines expose an especially uncomfortable bargain. Lowen is being told that her individuality matters while being recruited for work that requires its partial concealment. She can enter a successful literary world, but she enters through another woman’s name.
That tension offers a precise way to understand her attraction to Jeremy without reducing her to a naïve intruder. His approval might appear to recognize the person the assignment asks her to hide. The danger, as an interpretation of the premise, is that she could mistake access for intimacy: being allowed into a life is not the same as being understood by its occupants.
Our earlier discussion of how Verity turns suspicion into suspense examined the uncertainty surrounding these characters. Jeremy adds a more personal test: whether Lowen’s reasons for staying remain persuasive even when uncertainty becomes distress.
Hathaway’s Verity makes replacement an uncomfortable fantasy
One reported detail sharpens this issue. The Associated Press describes Jeremy suggesting that Lowen borrow one of Verity’s dresses for an evening out. Its coverage also confirms the fantasy sequence in which Lowen begins kissing Jeremy and ends up kissing Verity. Both details bring the two women into the same intimate space without making them interchangeable. [The Associated Press cast interview](https://apnews.com/article/643881e3fc9971e4f3eb243ede159188)
The dress offers a particularly useful character question. From Lowen’s perspective, accepting it could mean hospitality, flattery, or an opportunity to inhabit a more assured version of herself. From Jeremy’s perspective, the offer requires its own interpretation. Whatever his intention, he is inviting one woman to appear in something belonging to his wife.
My interpretation is that this gesture makes Jeremy more interesting when examined for its implications than when treated simply as romantic generosity. He helps determine the terms on which Lowen enters the household. Her proximity to Verity is therefore partly something he enables.
The fantasy kiss further complicates the idea that this is merely a competition for a husband. It visually connects romantic attraction with fascination about the woman already occupying the desired life. Jeremy becomes part of a larger emotional arrangement involving authorship, recognition, and belonging.
Why casting cannot solve a relationship on its own
Hathaway’s prominence can intensify Verity’s importance, but no actor can independently supply every connection a triangle requires. The scenes between Lowen and Jeremy must have a character of their own. Otherwise, their relationship risks feeling like a route back to the more intriguing question of Verity.
This is also why adaptation cannot be measured solely by whether memorable incidents survive the move to the screen. As our discussion of the character challenges of adapting The Crying Boy argues, screen storytelling must give inherited material a dramatic form. Private fascination needs expression through performance, timing, and interaction.
For Verity, the decisive issue is emotional specificity. Viewers need to understand what Lowen believes she receives from Jeremy, even if they consider that belief disastrous. Understanding her attraction does not require approving of it.
The deeper question: who authorizes Lowen’s new identity?
The most productive interpretation of this triangle concerns permission. Lowen is authorized to continue Verity’s writing, welcomed into her household, and drawn toward her husband. Each form of access can make the next boundary feel less firm.
Jeremy matters because his responses can make that movement feel acceptable. If he remains dramatically indistinct, the story loses an opportunity to examine how another person’s encouragement helps turn temptation into self-justification.
That is the meaningful concern behind the claim that Hathaway cannot rescue the film alone. Verity can be fascinating, threatening, or impossible to decipher. The relationship beside her still has to explain itself. A thriller about entering another woman’s life becomes most unsettling when the invitation feels personal—and when we understand why Lowen wants to believe it.
Original content by this site's editorial team. Published: September 30, 2026 at 17:32:11 PDT (Los Angeles time)
