‘Verity’ Lands With Mixed Reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, but Anne Hathaway Is the One Thing Critics Agree On
Colleen Hoover adaptations have never been critical darlings. So far, every Hoover movie has received a ‘rotten’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, and yet several of them have still turned into box office hits. ‘Verity’ is the latest test of whether that gap between critics and audiences will hold.
The film arrives with a lot going for it, including a cast of Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson and Josh Hartnett, a director in Michael Showalter and a built-in fan base. It is also Hathaway’s fifth film in theaters this year, following ‘The Odyssey’ at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, ‘The End of Oak Street’ at 86%, ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ at 78% and ‘Mother Mary’ at 69%.
On Wednesday, the review embargo lifted at 9 a.m. ET, and the first verdicts landed 2 days before the film’s October 2 opening. The Rotten Tomatoes page for ‘Verity’ now shows a 46% Tomatometer based on 37 reviews, which makes it the only one of Hathaway’s 2026 releases to land in ‘rotten’ territory.
The number has been sliding as more critics weigh in. ‘Verity’ debuted on Rotten Tomatoes at around 54%, then dipped to 52% and 50% as additional reviews arrived, and the latest page shows 46%.
Metacritic reads “mixed or average,” with a score of 46 based on 11 reviews. Of those, 2 were positive, 7 were mixed and 2 were negative.
The reviews range widely. Screen Rant’s Liz Declan gave the film 8 out of 10 and said it could reasonably be called the best Hoover adaptation yet, adding that Johnson has never seemed more comfortable in front of the camera. IndieWire called it a fun and frigid psycho-thriller, praising Johnson’s ability to think through the truth of a moment while questioning Showalter’s command of horror.
On the other side, The Hollywood Reporter‘s Richard Lawson found the movie neither sexy nor smart despite the hotness and intelligence of its performers. SlashFilm’s Nina Starner gave it 2 out of 10, and the Weekend Warrior’s Edward Douglas gave it 4 out of 10, calling it one of the least effective erotic thrillers in years.
Others landed in the middle. HeyUGuys gave it 3 out of 5, saying it is hard not to enjoy a film so committed to its own brand of nonsense, and The AU Review also gave it 3 out of 5, calling it serviceable and slickly mounted.
The most common complaint is tone. ComingSoon’s Jonathan Sim gave the film 5 out of 10, saying it struggles to find the right tone for its elements to coexist, and Digital Spy gave it 2 out of 5, saying it never decides whether it is a campy joy and becomes a slog instead.
AZFamily’s Hunter V. Norris gave it 3.5 out of 10 and compared it to a Lifetime original movie. Another critic argued that the film is constrained by mainstream prudishness.
Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and Josh Hartnett star in an all-new trailer for #Verity.
— Rotten Tomatoes 🍅 (@RottenTomatoes) August 11, 2026
In theaters October 2. pic.twitter.com/niq02J5nO5
One thing almost everyone agrees on is Hathaway. Even critics who panned the film praised her performance, with Starner saying her talent makes parts of the movie watchable.
Alison Rose of FilmDirect wrote that the film benefits from a deliciously devious Hathaway and some effective tension, though a lack of chemistry and an underdeveloped romance keep it from fully satisfying. A critic at Mashable said Hathaway seems to be having the time of her life.
The reviews may not matter much at the box office. Box Office Theory’s final tracking puts the domestic opening at $24 million to $34 million, with studio tracking at $27 million to $30 million, enough to top Tom Cruise’s ‘Digger’, which is forecast at $7.5 million to $12.5 million.
Boxoffice Pro’s long-range forecast was even higher, at $30 million to $40 million. For comparison, ‘It Ends with Us’ opened to $50 million domestically, ‘Regretting You’ to $13.6 million and ‘Reminders of Him’ to $17.8 million. The film has a reported budget of $40 million and carries an R rating, unlike the PG-13 earlier adaptations.
‘Verity’ runs 1 hour and 54 minutes and is rated R. It plays Thursday previews before opening in theaters nationwide on Friday, October 2.
Are the mixed reviews for Verity changing your interest in seeing the movie?
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