Verity Film Keeps Its Big Mystery Alive

The new film adaptation of Colleen Hoover's novel "Verity" doesn't answer its central question: Is Verity the monster she writes about, or the victim in her final letter? That's by design, director Michael Showalter told The Hollywood Reporter.

"I'm agnostic," Showalter said. He wanted to preserve the novel's ambiguity, which Hoover says she didn't even plan. "It wasn't until like two weeks before I turned it in that I realized, like, oh, it doesn't need a resolution," Hoover told THR.

The film, starring Anne Hathaway as Verity, Dakota Johnson as Lowen, and Josh Hartnett as Jeremy, follows Lowen discovering a chilling manuscript while staying at the Crawford home. The manuscript reveals Verity's dark secrets, but a letter later claims it was fiction. The movie ends without resolving which is true.

Showalter said most of the work maintaining that uncertainty happened in post-production. "We did so many different cuts of the movie," he told THR, testing each one with audiences. The goal was to leave viewers in "a place of uncertainty." Small details, like Lowen putting on her sunglasses at the end, shifted how test audiences read the ending.

Hoover admitted her own read on the mystery has changed. "When I wrote the book and ended it how I ended it, I was in Lowen's perspective. I was just as confused as she was," she told THR. After seeing the film, she gained a new perspective and still doesn't know.

Anne Hathaway said she's "team letter" and noted, "I don't trust Lowen. I don't think Lowen's well. And I definitely don't trust Jeremy." Showalter pointed to a scene where Jeremy admits he lied about Verity having read Lowen's book; Lowen seems turned on rather than outraged. "You're like, OK, she is an unreliable narrator," he said of Lowen.

For Hoover, Verity herself is the most conflicting character. "They're three completely different women," she said, crediting Showalter's direction for bringing that to life on screen.

The film is in theaters now. If you loved the book's unresolved ending and the debate it sparked, the movie delivers the same puzzle. Watch it with friends and argue about who's telling the truth.

• Anne Hathaway
• Colleen Hoover
• Dakota Johnson
• Josh Hartnett
• Michael Showalter
• Verity