Lily James gives an energized performance in Swiped, a movie in which she portrays Whitney Wolfe, the woman who helped design the dating app Tinder. After being pushed aside by Tinder’s execs, Wolfe went on to found Bumble, a female-centric dating app that made her a billionaire. Director Rachel Lee Goldenberg falls prey to a common problem in stories about rapid-fire successes followed by a fall and then renewal. The rise usually proves more engaging than the fall. In this case, the story's second half charts the sexism Wolfe experienced at Tinder, a business where a “bro” culture seemed to prevail. The atmosphere is so toxic, Wolfe fails to support a loyal female co-worker (Myha’la). Ben Schnetzer portrays the charming tech whiz and Tinder co-founder who bets on Wolfe’s marketing savvy. Jackson White portrays Justin, another Tinder co-founder, but one who turns on Wolfe when their ill-advised romance sours. Dan Stevens portrays Russian-born Andrey Andreev, the head of Badoo, an international dating site. Andreev becomes Wolfe’s corporate savior, but ultimately proves to be another supporter of bad-boy behavior. I’m a bit put off by movies that tell real-life stories because I’m never entirely sure of what liberties might have been taken to enhance the drama. I’m assuming Goldenberg’s storytelling is accurate enough, but her movie tends toward superficiality. It’s a gloss on female issues in a male-dominated tech world that could have dived deeper. For the record, if you're looking for info on Whitney Wolfe, you'd do well to look under her married name, Whitney Wolfe Herd. She was married after most of the events in the movie took place.
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