Aahana Swrup
Harboring a sinister secret at its center, ‘Verity’ presents the story of two authors who are connected by one manuscript. The film follows Lowen Ashleigh, a writer of great talent but middling success, who is hired as a ghostwriter for a best-selling author. The author in question is Verity Crawford, known for her thrillers, each told from the perspective of the villain. Following a car crash, Verity has been left paralyzed, unable to move or talk. Consequently, her husband, Jeremy, wants the writer to make sense of his wife’s notes and outlines and finish her final book. This takes Lowen to the Crawford residence, where she accidentally discovers the other woman’s autobiographical manuscript. However, rather than the idyllic life of a beloved author, the manuscript tells a much more sinister story. Soon enough, Lowen finds herself haunted by the unattainable desire for the truth. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Verity Plot Synopsis
Verity Crawford is a highly successful author who is at the top of her game. Comparatively, Lowen Ashleigh is almost on the other end of the spectrum. Though published, she’s still something of an undiscovered gem, struggling to get her name out into the world. Shortly after the death of her mother, she receives an unusual offer. The Hachette Book Group reaches out to her, offering her a lucrative job opportunity: ghostwriting Verity’s next book. Although she is reluctant about her ability to faithfully replicate the famous author’s voice, the paycheque, as well as some encouragement from the latter’s husband, Jeremy, convinced her. Thus, she arrives at the Crawford Residence, where she will be staying until she can piece together the author’s unfinished book through her notes.
The house is populated by Verity, who has been left paralyzed after the accident; her nurse, Anna; Jeremy; and their son, Crew. Shortly before the accident, the family suffered another tragedy when Crew’s twin sister Harper drowned at the nearby lake. Early in her arrival, Lowen discovers something unexpected: a pen drive containing a manuscript of Verity’s autobiography, “So Be It.” It starts with the beginning of her and Jeremy’s whirlwind love affair, where both were entirely enamored with each other. However, things began to take a turn after Verity’s pregnancy and the birth of their two children. The author grew envious of her husband’s apparent unconditional love for their kids, which led her to resent Harper and Crew. In fact, her resentment grew so strong that she started thinking about murdering her own newborn babies.
These parts of the manuscript scandalize and repulse Lowden. At the same time, she becomes fascinated by Verity’s descriptions of her and Jeremy’s romance. As such, during her stay, she tries to get to know the husband better and eventually starts fantasizing about him. Yet, simultaneously, she grows fearful of Verity, slowly but surely becoming convinced that the author isn’t truly paralyzed and is spying on her every move. Eventually, when the time for her departure nears, Jeremy invites Lowen to a belated birthday celebration with dinner at a nice restaurant. Inevitably, the writer who didn’t pack for such an occasion ends up borrowing from Verity’s closet. During their night out, Jeremy makes a startling confession. Earlier, he had told her that the reason she had been approached for the project was that Verity enjoyed her work.
In reality, the author never read her book. Instead, it was Jeremy who loved her writing. The night ends with the duo back at the house, inevitably gravitating towards each other. After spending the night with Jeremy, Lowen returns to the manuscript and arrives at a horrifying chapter in Verity’s life. In the autobiography, the author confesses to taking her children out on the lake and intentionally tipping their rowboat in the hopes of killing the twins. In the aftermath, Harper died, Crew survived, and their mother successfully passed the whole thing off as a tragic accident. She had taken this adverse step with the expectation that, with her children gone, Jeremy’s unconditional love might return to her without any distractions. Nonetheless, she soon realizes that the grief of losing his daughter might be a pit her husband can’t crawl out of. Thus, in the end, Verity drove her car into a tree to end her story entirely.
Verity Ending: Which is Telling the Truth: The Manuscript or the Letter?
From the beginning, Lowen treats the autobiographical manuscript as an ultimate confession that leaves no room for ambiguity. Her perception of Verity, warped into a villainous, abusive mother, remains the most concrete version of the author in the story for the longest time. As such, the manuscript influences all of Lowen’s actions: confronting Verity, telling Jeremy the truth, and later aiding and abetting the author’s murder. However, seven months after the crime, the writer makes a startling discovery. Since Verity’s death, Jeremy has moved on with Lowen, and the two are even on the verge of welcoming a new member to their family of three. Therefore, the couple and Crew are finally moving out of the Crawford residence. During the final sweep of the house, Lowen discovers a hidden compartment in the floorboards, which houses one lone letter.
This letter is written by Verity and addressed to Jeremy. It tells a much different story about Harper’s accident and the time that followed. In the letter, the author confesses to being heartbroken and devastated by the death of her daughter. While she was drowning in her grief, the mother remembered a writing practice her agent suggested called “antagonistic journaling.” The method advises processing one’s life through a sinister and villainous perspective. Verity took to the practice, turning her own life into a book and herself into a wicked antagonist. Yet, none of what she wrote was actually true. In fact, by nature, it was the exact opposite of the author’s true feelings and emotions. Thus, a new version of the truth emerges, one where Verity wasn’t the unfeeling villain who got what she deserved, but rather a victim of her cruel circumstances.
Ultimately, this revelation leaves the story with two possibilities: either what Verity wrote in the manuscript is true, or she’s telling the truth in the letter. The author’s reputation and public-facing persona make the manuscript easy to believe. She writes about grueling murders and always from the point of view of the antagonists. By virtue of this stylistic preference, one has to assume she is in the headset of homicidal psychopaths and murders, albeit fictional ones, all the time. Therefore, it’s not much of a stretch to imagine she was accessing these enthralling thoughts and emotions from a personal place. At the same time, her exceptional skills as a wordsmith are exactly what gives credence to the letter as well.
After having written multiple convincing and compelling villains, it’s no surprise that she would have twisted herself into the shape of a believable antagonist without equipping any actual biographical truth in the manuscript. Jeremy would have perhaps been the only person who could have drawn a distinction between the real Verity and the version of herself that she wrote about in her book. Yet, the fact that he never read any of her novels, past the first one, takes him out of the running as well. The answer to which piece of writing held the real Verity remains ultimately unknown. The film ends with the protagonist on ‘Hot Ones,’ giving an interview where she talks about how, in her “Noble Virtues” book series, she most enjoyed corrupting the concept of truth. Ironically enough, her own life becomes beholden to this same corruption, in which deceit and uncertainty have erased any access to the actual, verifiable truth.
Did Verity Really Kill Harper? Was it an Accident?
Harper’s death haunts the story as forebodingly as the elusive truth of Verity’s real self. The kid died a horrible death while out on the lake with her mother and her twin brother. In a tragic accident, their rowboat capsized, leading to the young girl’s drowning. In the aftermath, Verity and Crew survived the incident and were interviewed by the cops who investigated the matter. Ultimately, the death was ruled out to be an accident. Since then, Crew has spoken sparsely about his sister, while Verity’s accident, which followed shortly after, also left her silent. Although she confesses to intentionally causing the capsizing in her manuscript, the letter contests this claim as well.
In fact, according to the letter, the mother was so grief-stricken at Harper’s death that it led her to pen the false autobiography as a twisted outlet for her pain. Thus, much like most other unresolved threads in the story, this mystery is also divided by the viewer’s inclination to believe the manuscript or the letter. Still, there’s one thing to be noted. In her autobiography, Verity expresses a similar level of disdain for both her children. Although she is particularly aggrieved by Harper, whom she describes as more troublesome, she has no love left for Crew either.
Moreover, Verity’s decision to kill her children hadn’t necessarily stemmed from her resentment towards them. Instead, it was born of a desire to get rid of the two people whom Jeremy seemed to care about more than her. Therefore, the question remains: why would Verity have stopped at only Harper’s death? Why wouldn’t she try harder to ensure Crew doesn’t walk away from the lake alive either? Alternatively, it is possible that her son’s survival is an unintentional mistake that she couldn’t course-correct in time without casting herself in a suspicious light. Thus, the possibility that Harper died in an accident remains as likely as her falling victim to her mother’s homicidal scheme.
How Did Verity’s Accident Happen? Did Jeremy Try to Kill Her?
Verity’s accident is the catalyst that brings Lowen into the sinister world of the Crawford family. Before these tragedies overtook the family, the author was working on the much-anticipated final book in her Noble Virtues series. Nevertheless, in the aftermath of her accident, she isn’t in a condition to finish the book herself. Jeremy and the doctors are aware that Verity’s paralysis isn’t caused by an injury ot the spinal cord. This makes it more likely to be a result of the accident’s physical and mental trauma. As per the manuscript, the author found herself in an accident as a self-induced suicide attempt. After orchestrating her daughter’s death, the mother still fails to recapture the undivided attention she had desired from her husband.
More importantly, Verity becomes convinced that nothing could ever bring that period of her life back. For the same reason, she had resorted to self-destruction by driving her car into a tree. However, this raises the question of why, after surviving the incident, the author would continue to fake her paralysis. If the manuscript is to be trusted, all of Verity’s darkest secrets were held close to her heart, confined in an unread manuscript. Consequently, she would have no reason to want to hide from her family behind a fake ailment. Even if there could have been a probable explanation for her behavior, she never got to share it. Once Lowen reveals the truth about the manuscript to Jeremy, he immediately confronts his wife. He soon grows homicidal when Verity reveals that she had been faking her paralysis. Soon after, the author dies. Thus, the lack of explanation inadvertently makes the alternative series of events more compelling.
In the letter, Verity reveals that Jeremy discovered her manuscript briefly after she finished it. Her husband ended up believing every single word, which framed his wife as Harper’s murderer. Therefore, he drugged Verity before strapping her into her car and staging the car accident. Unexpectedly, the author survived the accident. She knew that if she revealed her recovery, Jeremy would take her manuscript to the cops and use her fictitious words against her. Thus, she faked her paralysis with the intention of eventually running away to safety with Crew. Ultimately, this version of events also leaves many questions unanswered. For instance, if Jeremy suspected his wife of being a killer, why would he try to get her last book finished? Why wouldn’t Verity use Lowen’s birthday dinner date as a window to run away? In the end, her accident, like other aspects of her life, remains shrouded in mystery.
Why Does Lowen Keep the Letter a Secret?
As the story comes to an end, Lowen discovers Verity’s letters, which turn the tables on the Crawford couple’s dynamic. If the final confession is to be trusted, then it is Jeremy who is the conniving and manipulative killer rather than his wife. Still, with this implication, Lowen chooses to keep the letter a secret and return to her life with Jeremy. Over the course of the film, the writer is perhaps the one who undergoes the most development. Her curiosity about Verity’s life finds a start within professional parameters, but soon grows into a more intimate fascination. Her manuscript draws the other woman towards the author’s life until she starts to covet it, desiring it for herself. She wants the same success, fame, glamour, and romance that Verity is swiftly on the way to lose. Lowen’s affair with Jeremy is the most obvious evidence of her gradual descent into becoming a duplicate of Verity.
The revelation that the latter might have been involved in the murder of her own daughter gives the other woman the final push she needs to make this fantasy into a reality. By believing the author is a cruel killer, Lowen can justify her own resentment of her beyond her personal feelings of envy. Thus, when she helps Jeremy kill Verity and dump her body in the lake, she can finalize her overtaking of the author’s life without having to commit to villainy herself. The discovery of the letter threatens all of these safe assumptions and justifications. For the same reasons, it’s possible Lowen chooses to ignore it simply because she has come too far to turn back now. Even if she’s choosing to believe the manuscript over the letter, it’s impossible to ignore that this decision is likely influenced by the fact that the one allows her to close the chapter as a hero while the other paints her as a tragic fool with blood on her hands.
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