SWIPED (DISNEY+) (2025)

SYNOPSIS: Inspired by the provocative real-life story of the visionary founder of online dating platform Bumble, “Swiped” introduces recent college grad Whitney Wolfe, played by Lily James, as she uses extraordinary grit and ingenuity to break into the male-dominated tech industry and launch an innovative, globally lauded dating app (two, actually), paving the way to becoming the youngest female self-made billionaire.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Lily James returns to familiar territory, once again stepping into the shoes of a real-life figure — this time portraying Whitney Wolfe Herd, co-founder of Tinder and the founder of Bumble.

Swiped positions itself as an underdog, female-empowerment story, chronicling Whitney’s uphill battle against the chauvinism of Silicon Valley’s male-dominated tech world circa 2012. While the film highlights how stacked the odds were back then, it stops short of reflecting meaningfully on how much or how little the industry has truly changed since.

The narrative traces Whitney’s early role in developing Tinder, once touted as the world’s most popular dating app. Her relationship with fellow co-founder Justin Mateen (Jackson White) sours and when things turn personal, she’s unceremoniously pushed out of the company by CEO Sean Rad (Ben Schnetzer). Branded with a bad reputation and silenced by an NDA, Whitney seems cornered until Russian venture capitalist Andrey Andreev (Dan Stevens) approaches her with the idea of launching a rival dating app: Bumble.

Clearly modeled after prestige tech dramas like The Social Network (2010), Steve Jobs (2015) and Hulu’s The Dropout (2022), Swiped ticks the right boxes: a true story, a groundbreaking product, a disruptive cultural impact and a strong central figure. Yet despite that setup, the film feels oddly safe and uninspired. Even Whitney’s personal subplot, a romance with a cowboy named Michael comes across as distractingly tacky.

Writer-director Rachel Lee Goldenberg makes a genuine attempt to frame Whitney as a visionary but the portrait never digs deep enough. Beyond her marketing savvy at Tinder and her role in building Bumble with ex-colleagues, audiences leave with little real insight into who Whitney Wolfe Herd is. The film touches on weighty themes but shies away from exploring them with the boldness or urgency they deserve.

Still, Lily James remains a bright spot. Just as she impressed in her transformation as Pamela Anderson, she is compelling here, her charisma keeps the story watchable even when the script falters. Dan Stevens, meanwhile, brings unintentional humor with his exaggerated Russian accent.

Goldenberg may not reach the sharpness of David Fincher or the intensity of Danny Boyle but Swiped is at least a competent effort. It’s decent as a glossy biopic about a tech giant just not as daring or memorable as the woman at its center.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee