Verity: Anne Hathaway has had a very busy year with new releases, in addition to becoming pregnant in real life. This week I am reviewing two of her recent efforts. Earlier in the year of course she was in the colossal The Odyssey. This movie theatre experience for me was unique as I quickly recognized that I was one of very few men in the seats. I had arrived early and saw most coming in. The women were mid to late 20s until about late 40s. They were travelling in groups, so not just pairs. I scratched my head as to what was the draw, because I couldn’t imagine that 48 year old Josh Hartnett who at one time was a heart throb was driving this deamnd for women. At the conclusion of the movie I asked a fellow female moviegoer what drew her into see it, and she said that she read the book. The book Verity was written by Colleen Hoover back in 2018. Clearly it has a female audience who wanted to see this psychological thriller on the big screen.
As to the movie it stars Anne Hathaway as Verity Crawford a very successful writer who publishes novels about a women, written in the first person, who involve murder and intrigue. We get her backstory as the movie continues. She is married with two children. We learn that very quietly she has suffered from a car accident and is incapacitated. Her husband is looking in NYC to find a psuedonym to fill in and write three more novels under the Verity Crawford name. Enter Dakota Johnson, who plays Lowen Ashleigh an aspiring writer who has been published but hasn’t yet found her audience. She is struggling financially at the time that we meet her. Her lawyer and agent has set up a meeting for her where she was specifically targeted to attend. She is uncertain about attending. At the meeting she is told about Verity Crawford and that she has read Lowen’s books and she would dearly like to work with her on some new books. Lowen would be moved up to Vermont within the Crawford house to start the collaboration. After a time, she is convinced and heads to the massive property on a lake in Vermont. There is a palacial office with tons of material, notes, outlines, hardcopy and soft to provide background for Lowen. Lowen and Verity write in the same genre of novels and that is why she was targeted for this gig, which would pay her well. It is a huge career opportunity.
Things happen of course, and we find that Verity has suffered a recent loss, before she had an accident of her own. It seems that Lowen will be working on her own for this project. I found the story to be quite formulaic as it transpires. There are a few jolts on screen meant to awaken the audience and show that it is a thriller. The surprises aren’t all that surprising and the scares are less than terrifying. The acting for Hathaway is mainly told in the backstory. You see her in younger and healthier times. Lowen does her research and produces her outlines. For me, Dakota Johnson is not a very good actress. Yes she can deliver the lines, and the material that she has to work with can be tedious, but she doesn’t seem to have much of a range of emotion. It’s all pretty pedestrian. When there is a turn in her character, the words don’t seem to match the actions. Then in the fourth act, there are a couple twists that are really quite remarkable in the darkness that they represent. My laugh out loud line in the theatre was “We’re Good People!!!” When you see the context in which it is delivered, it’s just unreal. All that to say that, this was a movie I didn’t need to see in the theatre. I think that the Oscar-winning Anne Hathaway was able to mail this performance in after the quality work done with The Odyssey. Maybe she knew that pregnancy for her was on the radar and wanted to make a few more roles before taking some time away to be a Mom. Her life, her choice, her pocketbook. Josh Hartnett surprises me in the amount of recent work that he is getting. I remember the Pearl Harbour heartthrob days with Ben Affleck, but those are long behind him. He is a little fuller in the face, and he isn’t a terrific actor. But there is more of him to come with a Netflix movie called Below coming shortly. I will suspect that the book was better than the movie. Certainly the ending of the movie will leave many moviegoers wondering “is that it?” Yes, in fact, it is and one is left to wonder if there is more. I do hope not.
Devil Wears Prada 2: Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Anne Hathaway and Stanley Tucci get back together again to revisit their characters about the NY fashion industry from back in 2006. It is scary to think that so much time has passed. The original movie focused on a fashion magazine, where Hathaway as Andrea Sachs, was joining as a new assistant for the notoriously difficult Miranda Priestly, played by Streep, navigating the NY scene. Streep is no nonsense, direct and doesn’t suffer fools lightly. She also has no difficulty in an old school way to belittle, demean and browbeat her underlings. Also part of the assistant pool and lining up for some daily abuse is Emily Blunt as Emily Charlton. Finally Tucci is the fixer Nigel who can organize, speak to the offended and generally assist with being a helper with everyone in the magazine. A lot has happened since the original too, as they would over twenty years as Andrea is a journalist and reporter, Emily is the head of Dior in New York. There is a crisis involving things that Miranda had said, and the owner of the magazine is concerned about a potential promotion that he had planned for Miranda. Things happen in an altogteher predictable way.
There is an AI bent to the story with a discussion regarding human achievement as opposed to artificial. Miranda played by Streep sees the world shifting under her feet. This movie feels like a boastful friend who wants to name drop all the famous people that they have selfies with. Heck Rory McIlroy has a cameo. Lady Gaga appears.
But don’t fret. As to be expected, all works out in the end. Most aspects of it are predictable. Ultimately the best part of this movie for me, like the original, was Stanley Tucci. His supporting role always seems to add just the right tone and add the characters ability to interact. Nigel is proper, organized, thoughtful and insightful into the business of the magazine as it transitions from hardcopy to online content. Still through all of this he supports Miranda without fail.
Why was the movie necessary? It allows the stars to spend some quality time in Milan at the studio’s expense. At a time when Hollywood struggles to find new stories to tell, sometimes it is easier to find a twenty year old modest success and squeeze it and the movie public a little further with a less-than-stellar effort. I cannot recommend this movie. If you happen to be on a plane that has it, then perhaps check it out. It does allow you to pass two hours when crossing the Atlantic. For Anne Hathaway who I do generally like, this is strike two in a little over a week. Sad to say.
