Eff you, Simon Leviev. As someone who barley matches with 1 or 2 women on dating apps every month or so, your cruel behavior makes things even harder for good hearted people like myself. The Tinder Swindler is a hyper engaging thriller documentary for our modern dating times. It is also a death knell for nice men like me, probably scaring a lot of women away from dating apps.
Simon Leviev is a good-looking, world hopping jewelry prince. Naturally, he attracts a fair share of female attention, specifically in the doc Cecilie Fjellhøy, a Norwegian living in London. After Leviev sweeps Cecilie off her feet with his luxurious lifestyle, Cecilie learns that Simon might be in a bit of peril, and asks Cecilie to take loans/pull funds to help Leviev escape his predicament. About that same time, another woman named Pernilla Sjoholm in Sweden also matched with Simon on Tinder, and is about to get swept off her feet…
You get the idea. Props to Felicity Morris, the director, for weaving Cecilie, Pernilla, and later Ayleen Koeleman’s talking heads into a really fun crime thriller. Morris streamlines the tale into one coherent story revolving around 3 unfortunately interconnected women, and their tale of their experiences with Simon, the enigmatic villain like in an espionage thriller. Morris does nice perspective shifting to fuse the timelines for the audience: while Pernilla is galivanting across Europe, Cecilie is frantically trying to take loans out to save what she thinks is her love in danger. From there, the story turns into an investigative journalism tale, as we start to pull apart the ingenious but evil mechanics “Simon Leviev” used to pull one over on these lovesick ladies. We get a full arc for our villain too, as the mystery surrounding who this man is comes to light, with some delightful and infuriating results. Morris uses real app messages/pics/video to completely immerse the audience into a situation they themselves might find themselves in, while they’re innocently looking for love.
Get in, get out, fast. The experience of watching The Tinder Swindler is a lot like “Simon Leviev’s” approach to graft. And for the record, ladies, please don’t give up on Bumble/Tinder, etc. I promise I’ll treat you right, not like this asshole.