FLM.RED / After the credits
Two accounts and no certain truth
Verity recapped: Lowen’s discovery, Jeremy’s choice and the conflicting letter. Major spoilers.
Open the recap & discussion — spoilers
A writer enters the Crawford home to finish a book series and finds a manuscript that changes how she sees the family.
Lowen enters the Crawford home
Struggling writer Lowen accepts an offer to complete Verity Crawford’s bestselling series after Verity’s accident. She stays with Verity’s husband Jeremy and their son Crew while studying the author’s notes.
A disturbing manuscript
Lowen finds an unfinished autobiographical manuscript describing Verity’s resentment of her children and suggesting responsibility for her daughter Harper’s death. It reads like a confession, but Lowen has only the text and her own observations to judge.
Suspicion grows inside the house
Lowen increasingly believes Verity is pretending to be incapacitated. At the same time, Lowen and Jeremy become romantically involved, making her place in the household and her reading of the manuscript more complicated.
Jeremy acts on the manuscript
Lowen tells Jeremy what she has found. When confronted, Verity admits she has been pretending to be incapacitated. Jeremy kills her, and Lowen helps cover up her death. Their decision follows from accepting the manuscript as evidence of what Verity did.
The letter leaves the answer open
Months later, with Lowen and Jeremy expecting a child, Lowen discovers a letter in which Verity says the manuscript was a writing exercise rather than a confession. Lowen does not share the letter with Jeremy.
The film does not establish which account is true. The uncertainty makes Lowen’s involvement in Verity’s death harder to separate from her own desires and fears.
Questions after watching
- Which details make the manuscript convincing to Lowen?
- How does her relationship with Jeremy affect what she chooses to believe?
- Why might Verity have written the letter whether or not it is true?
A thriller about the stories people trust
The ending asks the audience to weigh two incompatible accounts after the person who could explain them is gone.
Keep the conversation going
What does Lowen find?
An unfinished manuscript that appears to describe Verity’s resentment and responsibility for Harper’s death.
What happens to Verity?
Jeremy kills her, and Lowen helps cover up the death.
Is the manuscript or the letter true?
The film leaves the question unresolved.
