Lily James brings her natural charm to Hulu’s latest biopic in “Swiped,” from director Rachel Lee Goldberg, who co-writes the film with Bill Parker and Kim Caramele. Loosely inspired by the story of Whitney Wolfe (James), the visionary founder of online dating platform Bumble, “Swiped” introduces Whitney as she is trying to break into the male-dominated tech industry.
At a tech event, she impresses Sean Rad (Ben Schnetzer), who makes her vice president of the company he co-founded with Justin (Jackson White), which would eventually become Tinder. Whitney excels at Tinder, particularly in the way she markets it on college campuses; she is named one of the co-founders and even starts a relationship with Justin.
Naturally, things go left, and Whitney soon finds herself being harassed by Justin, forced out of the company, leading to a domino effect where she works with Andrey Andreev (Dan Stevens), the head of Badoo, another dating app, to start the woman-only dating app Bumble. However, with that success, more things begin to happen that could derail everything Whitney has worked for. One of the first things viewers should know about “Swiped” is that, due to an NDA, the real Wolfe wasn’t involved in the film, so there’s no telling how much of the film is actually true.
As a fan of biopcs, it’s always a slippery slope when you don’t have your subject involved, so in that regard, “Swiped” was always going to have an uphill battle. The bulk of the film’s narrative is centered on Whitney’s time at Tinder, and with James steering the ship, the film does have an asset as she makes the subpar material shine.
Whether it’s focusing on the misogyny from her male coworkers or her tone-deaf treatment of coworkers, James does elevate the material. However, once the film shifts to Whitney finding success, it becomes a Wikipedia bullet point that doesn’t match the first half’s strength.
That means the supporting cast outside of Sean and Justin are somewhat wasted, in particular Tish (Myha’la), her friend and coworker from Tinder, who would later join her at Bumble, and her eventual husband, Michael (Pierson Fodé). One of the most surprising things is the waste of Clea Duvall and Dermot Mulroney, who are essentially one-scene cameos.
While I will give the film some credit for delving into the backstory of the dating app, its subject is worth a stronger story.
Final Grade: C
“Swiped” is available to stream on Hulu on Friday, September 19th.
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