Whilst the story behind how Whitney Wolfe Herd both co-founded Tinder and its eventual competition, Bumble, is exciting and full of suitable intrigue, Swiped, with its understandable embellishments, never quite graduates beyond surface level interest. It’s an entertaining film, without question, with another committed Lily James performance at its core, but The Social Network this tech drama is not.
There’s rarely a dull moment across the film’s 110 minutes though, with director Rachel Lee Goldenberg aiming for a more conventional, crowd-pleasing, rousing temperament as it follows Whitney’s substantial rise in an industry dominated by men; the script – co-written by Goldenberg with Bill Parker and Kim Caramele – not shying away from the misogynistic mentality she had to contend with in the office, as well as her own shortcomings as a woman who treated other women lower than her on the food chain with less respect.
It’s bold inclusions in Swiped such as the aforementioned that suggest how messy a story and situation it truly was, but whether it’s because the real Whitney is still under an NDA and can’t comment on her time as she helped build Tinder from the ground up, or that the creatives behind the film wanted something a little more easily digestive and conventional, Swiped largely plays things safe.
The film introduces us to Whitney in the thick of her intention to flex her entrepreneurial drive, hitting up tech conferences in the hopes of striking up a conversation with the right investor for her ideas around assisting orphanages in Southeast Asia. Most of the men she talks to are interested in her aesthetically, but don’t take her pitch seriously. Someone who does take a shining to her is Sean Rad (Ben Schnetzer), and when he brings her along on one of his business lunches and she helps sell his customer loyalty rewards to the client, he immediately hires her to help at his start-up – an intended dating app that, through eliminated brainstorming, she names Tinder, off the notion of the designed flame logo and the idea of tinder, which is an easily combustible material used to start a fire.
It’s a fairytale start to Whitney and Sean’s app, with the user numbers growing day by day and, through her own marketing savvy, finding their biggest initial market in the college campus scene. It’s less a desired outcome for fellow co-founder Justin (Jackson White), who doesn’t take well to Whitney, who he is now dating, thriving in the business space he so believes is courted for male figures. He’s aggressive and jealous, and when he continually refuses to acknowledge her placement within the company – as well as dismissing her concerns around the male users of Tinder sending abusive messages and explicit photos – she has no choice but to leave.
It’s a rather straightforward narrative, and it continues on trend as she links with another tech head, Andrey Andreev (Dan Stevens), the Russian founder of fellow dating app, Badoo, who appears largely in her corner as he helps her spearhead Bumble, a women-first dating app that was born from wanting to right the wrongs of Tinder and its toxicity. By the time we get to Bumble’s origins though, the film is entering its third act, so much of its success is rushed, and there isn’t much discussion surrounding the fallout of her time at Tinder and how Sean and Justin, with their bruised egos, went after her publicly and besmirched her name and reputation.
Given how ultimately defiant Whitney was in the face of such abuse, it makes sense that Swiped largely goes for the inspiring, positive spin on her situation – even if the fractured fragility of Justin, especially, is what could have made for truly intriguing viewing as he attempted to take her down. We don’t need another male focal point in a film that’s so championing women, but he seemingly played such a substantial role in her trajectory that it couldn’t have hurt the film to delve deeper into their volatile dynamic. Similarly, whilst it deserves props for acknowledging how Whitney wasn’t always the greatest ally for the women that worked at Tinder, the conflict she has with co-worker and best friend, Tisha (Myha’la), is largely glossed over too. Not neglected, but there’s clear itches that need a deeper scratch.
Swiped may not necessarily clue us in as to who Whitney Wolfe Herd really is, but it paints a picture as to where she was coming from. A biopic-lite that needs some further fleshing out for us to truly appreciate her rise and fall temperament, the overall hopeful nature of the film and James’ performance are at least enough for us to digest what we’ve been served – even if we need more than the dramatised buffet we’re given.
THREE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Swiped is streaming on Disney+ in Australia and on Hulu in the United States from September 19th, 2025.
