Analyzing the Ambiguous Ending of 'Verity'

The film adaptation of Colleen Hoover's bestselling thriller 'Verity' concludes with a powerful ambiguity, leaving audiences to question the true nature of its protagonist, Verity Crawford. Director Michael Showalter and Hoover herself have elaborated on the deliberate choice to maintain this uncertainty, aiming to replicate the reader's experience from the novel.

The narrative centers on Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson), a struggling writer hired to complete the book series of renowned author Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway), who has been incapacitated by a car accident. While working in Verity's home, Lowen discovers a disturbing autobiographical manuscript, "So Be It," in which Verity confesses to resentment towards her twin children and the murder of one of them, Harper. Simultaneously, Lowen grows closer to Verity's husband, Jeremy Crawford (Josh Hartnett).

Showalter's adaptation retains the novel's ending structure, which intentionally refrains from definitively stating whether Verity was a sociopathic killer or a tragic figure. "There's something about this story that's very big," Showalter told TIME. "Crazy things happen. It's scary, it's sexy, it's surprising. I wanted to preserve those moments that are like, whoa, that just happened."

A Manuscript's Hold

The film begins with Verity in her prime, interviewed on "Hot Ones," calling her life "all a miracle." This sets a stark contrast to the events that unfold. Lowen, after a chance encounter with Jeremy following a car accident involving a cyclist, is offered the lucrative but unsettling job.

Upon arriving at the Crawford residence, Lowen discovers Verity's hidden manuscript. The film employs a daring technique, interweaving Lowen's present-day experiences with chapters from "So Be It." Verity's voiceover narrates her confessions, directly addressing the reader, a device Hoover herself had reservations about but ultimately embraced on screen. "It's a relationship. It's intimate. It's all-encompassing," Showalter said of the reading experience. "It's a love affair."

The manuscript details Verity's struggles with motherhood, her alleged drowning of Harper, and her growing disdain for Jeremy after the child's death. These narrated passages play out as Lowen becomes increasingly drawn into Verity's life, even adopting her style and growing intimate with Jeremy. Showalter noted that Lowen is "slowly becoming Verity," coveting her success, relationship, and overall life.

A significant change from the novel is the reduction of the Crawford children to twins, Harper and Crew, simplifying the narrative focus to one tragic event.

A Manufactured Tragedy

The tension escalates as Lowen uncovers more, eventually planting a camera in Verity's room. Confronted by Jeremy, Lowen presents him with the manuscript. This leads to a confrontation where Verity, revealing she was feigning her incapacitation, is ultimately smothered by Jeremy. Lowen suggests the act, urging Jeremy to "make it look like an accident," mirroring the film's earlier sequence where Verity's death is staged to resemble Harper's drowning.

The couple disposes of Verity's body in the lake, fabricating a story of her waking and walking into the water. This invention by the filmmakers adds a layer to Lowen's involvement, shifting her from advisor to accomplice in a murder cover-up.

The Letter and Lingering Doubt

Seven months later, Lowen, now pregnant with Jeremy's child, discovers a hidden letter from Verity to Jeremy. Written during her feigned incapacitation, the letter claims "So Be It" was an "antagonistic journaling" exercise, not a confession, and that Jeremy, misunderstanding her intent, drugged her and staged the car accident to look like her promised suicide. If true, Jeremy orchestrated Verity's death based on her own manuscript's ending, using Lowen's phrase "make my death look like an accident" against her.

The letter suggests Jeremy knew Verity was alive and playing invalid, making his shock at the manuscript's revelation and Verity's months of silence potentially performative. The existence of this letter fuels the ongoing debate among readers: is the manuscript the truth, or is the letter the verity?

Hoover acknowledged the reader division, stating, "Team Manuscript holds that Verity’s manuscript is a confession to take at face value, while Team Letter claims Verity became the victim of her own craft." Showalter aimed to preserve this ambiguity, stating, "We ultimately decided not to go that far, but to leave it in that very ambiguous place."

Verity's Final Word

While the novel concludes with Lowen's internal debate, the film ends by returning to Verity's "Hot Ones" interview, which Lowen had watched earlier. Verity's words about manipulating truth and certainty serve as her final address, speaking directly to the audience and the film's deliberate ambiguity. "It was giving her the last word," Showalter said.

Hoover noted that the film presents three versions of Verity: the one in the manuscript, the bedridden Verity, and the public figure. The film leaves the question of which, if any, is the real Verity unanswered. Lowen, seemingly gaining everything she desired—Jeremy, a career, and a family—ultimately leaves with uncertainty, as the film concludes by highlighting that "the living inherit the doubt, and the dead, as ever, hold the truth."