'Swiped' turns Tinder timid
Hulu
It’s not a case of Janie Jimplin exactly, but “Swiped” does just enough to be able to say “This is the story of how Whitney Wolfe (Lily James) built Tinder and started Bumble” while very clearly also saying “If you want like, details, you’re in the wrong place.” The movie both opens and closes with disclaimers about only being inspired by a true story, perhaps because Wolfe signed an NDA and can’t discuss her time at Tinder, which isn’t super helpful biopic-wise.
Consequently, the distance kept from what’s happening is bizarre. Director/co-writer Rachel Lee Goldenberg defines Tinder merely as 1. Successful because of its lack of paperwork and 2. Flawed because of dick pics, but without doing anything to unpack what is happening to actual people and why. Once the app launches, there’s a montage of pairings going into rooms and closing the door, and Whitney sours on Tinder only after her boss/ex-boyfriend Justin (Jackson White, unappealing in nearly the same, obnoxious role as “Tell Me Lies”) sends an onslaught of awful texts and treats her horribly in the office. It’s hard to tell what Whitney thinks about Tinder becoming identified as a place for hookups rather than relationships, even though that too would be a generalization. There’s so much to explore about modern dating and sex and technology and confronting problematic people and situations, and “Swiped” turns everything complicated into a list of bullet points.
The movie is after very direct and absolutely important points: There’s a lot of toxicity in the dating and corporate worlds, and action can help where looking the other way, obviously, hurts. But the execution is murky while often being comically bitten from “The Social Network,” which is extra absurd because not only was Facebook already huge while the events of “Swiped” were taking place but “The Social Network” was out too. For Tinder employees to gather around in the mid-2010s, watching as they approach 1 million users, or for lawyers and social networking execs to sit around a table debating ownership and settlements, without recognizing the degree to which they are replicating the events of a movie about another majorly impactful social platform, is just dizzying.
Meanwhile, James’ accent sometimes wobbles and her professional relationship with Andrey Andreev (Dan Stevens!) simultaneously attempts a powerful statement of accountability and outspokenness while seemingly avoiding details or any attempt at due diligence on the part of someone entering into a partnership. Wolfe’s work to give women control in the dating world very much deserves to be celebrated, but “Swiped” winds up making her look careless in numerous ways.
It’s not that the movie needed its subject to be on board (she wasn’t, and reportedly asked her lawyers to try to stop the project). It’s that it needs to be far more curious about the behavior it chronicles and seeks to counteract, rather than just taking it all for granted. Even a story set in the past shouldn’t feel like a taped event pretending to be live.
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