THE DROPOUT (2022) – The all American Dream gone wrong

Here’s an intriguing spin on the true story of a self-made billionaire who made it big through dubious means. The Dropout tells the story of Elizabeth Holmes, the infamous former CEO of Theranos, the company she founded that rode on the success of its claim to produce an innovative device that can perform blood tests with just a few drops. The key word here is “claim,” because that’s all it was. A claim that has never been backed up by a working model!

This miniseries captures Elizabeth Holmes’ rise and fall quite well, especially during her early years. Even as a young girl, she aspires to be great, and her determination drove her to pursue her dreams as she grew older. She did, in fact, manage to live the American dream at first and one stage became known as “the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire”. She persisted and never gave up on her dreams, even when the device she was working on failed! That’s when technical innovation became creative innovation in how to cheat and lie her way to convincing investors she had a viable solution. The trick appears to be to capture the imagination of others who also wants to get on the bandwagon to fame and success.

Amanda Seyfried plays Elizabeth Holmes. To be honest, I found her a little annoying, especially when she puts on that smug confident face of hers. Perhaps it’s because of the excellent acting, and perhaps the real Elizabeth Holmes was like that. Face aside, Amanda carried the series quite well, and we get a sense of her extreme determination to achieve her dreams, which left her pretty much on her own by the time she fell from grace.

While I found the series’ overall pacing to be satisfactory, this was not the case near the end, when everything felt rushed. The more recent events that occurred after her fraudulent venture was exposed were ignored. Little was said about her relationship with a younger man, which led to marriage and the birth of two children. She was eventually convicted and sentenced to 135 months in prison in November 2022. Granted, some of these events may have occurred after the series was made, but a closing footnote during the end credits would have provided some illumination.

The Dropout does a decent job of telling a cautionary tale about how blind ambition can lead to disaster, and how a personal interpretation of “never give up” on achieving the American Dream can lead to a misguided outcome with far-reaching consequences for many people.