Verity may be the perfect film for these post-truth times

When she finds a hidden thumb drive, though, everything changes. On it is a book Verity had written in secret, an autobiography titled So Be It. And it appears to reveal some very dark verities about Verity.

Director Michael Showalter, who created the often-hilarious Search Party, is no slouch at mixing dark humour and suspense, and he does a good job of keeping Verity on just the right side of ridiculous.

With Hathaway mostly immobile in her bed or chair, her face wan and stripped of make-up, her lips chapped, there’s an air of the haunted house about the beautiful lakeside residence where most of the action takes place. Verity is the Rebecca de Winter of this temple of sadness, but does Lowen have more in mind than aping her words? Does she want to steal her husband, her house, her life too?

Verity isn’t a great film, but it is a largely enjoyable one. And with its sense of what’s real and what’s not in constant flux, it might be the perfect tale for the post-truth age in which we live.

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