Directed by Lance Oppenheim, Primetime is set in 2006 and follows Dateline NBC series host Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson) as he evolves from a conventional news reporter into the aggressive, famous face of the cultural TV phenomenon, To Catch a Predator.
Now, I was growing up around the time To Catch a Predator was airing but I never ended up watching it like so many people did in the mid-2000s, so I can’t say I have a lot of detailed knowledge or nostalgia of the show or its iconic host. I only knew about the basics, so this film was my true introduction to the production world of the show and a deep dive into the people involved with making it, including Chris Hansen. I didn’t know what to expect going in, but I will say after seeing it I was left both fascinated and disturbed.
Primetime is a creatively unique biopic thriller that chronicles the chaotic rise and intense behind-the-scenes reality of To Catch a Predator while also being a relevant exploration of the exploitative nature of sensationalist journalism and the moral implications of it. It is a layered story that has a lot to say and is going to have a lot of people talking about it for multiple reasons, which makes it probably one of the most important films of the year, especially given the many topics it covers and how it can be applied to current events. With that said, I didn’t see this film as a flawless masterpiece as some critics hailed it as, and despite being well crafted it’s not a film I could see myself rewatching over and over again due to the highly disturbing nature of the story and topics covered, which are important like I said, but still uncomfortable to watch be explored in graphic detail.
The performances of this film are all fantastic in their own ways, but there are obviously some significant standouts that tower above the rest of them. The main lure of this film for most people is seeing Robert Pattinson playing Chris Hansen, and he is phenomenal as many have expected, delivering one of his best performances so far in a year full of great performances from him. Pattinson is an absolute chameleon at this point when it comes to performances, being able to completely disappear into any role he is given and he absolutely nails the part of Chris Hansen, giving us a truly complex take on one of television’s biggest icons.
This film portrays Hansen as a man who is in a constant state of struggle with wanting to be a better person compared to the rest of the world, but is clearly flawed in his own way and is clearly being consumed by sensationalist ratings, performative justice, and absolute control. He isn’t being portrayed as a hero or a villain but simply a complex human who is stuck in a morally gray area even when on a mission that most would consider righteous.
But he isn’t the only one who is dealing with deteriorating morals and psychological conflicts as we see the same occur with Dan Plumb, a young aspiring actor hired as a decoy for the show’s sting operations based on the actual decoy actor Dan Schrack, played amazingly by Skyler Gisondo. While Robert Pattinson certainly delivers a deservedly praiseworthy performance, I firmly believe Skyler Gisondo deserves equal recognition for his truly outstanding performance as a naive young man who sees his own moral compass begin to break the more he takes part in To Catch a Predator, giving us a deeply disturbing perspective on what the decoys of the show have to deal with. Even though it is made very clear that these decoy actors and actresses are completely safe during the production of the show, there is clearly a mental struggle they must deal with when having to interact with all of these disgustingly vile individuals that we get to see firsthand through Dan Plumb’s eyes ,as well as the eyes of Del Harvey, another decoy who is wonderfully played by Phoebe Bridgers. There’s a clear psychological toll this show had on its cast and crew, and while it can be unsettling to watch, I am glad it was highlighted given that it’s something most people wouldn’t even think about when watching the show.
While there are some involved in the show that are in it for the righteous cause, others are clearly in it for the fame and fortune. The biggest one among them is Andie Bender, Hansen’s producer at Dateline NBC, who prioritizes the show’s ratings above all else. With a perfectly sleazy performance given to us by Merritt Weaver, we are given some of the ugly truth of the show that most people either don’t know of or tend to ignore through this producer’s perspective. We are shown through her and others that some people involved in creating shows like this don’t give a shit about the moral implications of what they are making as long as it brings in primetime viewership. While it is extremely satisfying to see some disgusting predators get what they deserve, that doesn’t mean that the people and the network exposing them are purely angelic either, as this film explores on a deep level.
But the network executives and producers are not the only ones to take advantage of the show for their own benefit as we get to see certain law enforcement agencies do the same. The biggest one that gets focused on in the later half of the film is the law enforcement of Rockwall County, Texas that joins the show’s team as a means to promote their agency and have an excuse to hunt down predators with their big guns and gear. This was one of the parts of the film I will admit I had trouble taking seriously. While I am fully aware of how Texas can be as a state with its weird population, backwards politics, and constant need to overcompensate, their portrayal in this film was a bit too goofy for me, shattering the grounded realism the film mostly had up to this point. It became hard to tell what was based on true events and what was being exaggerated for dramatic purposes.
This film’s narrative takes the standard biopic and morphs it into a compelling thriller that has a lot of layers and a lot of things to say that are mostly executed extremely well. While there is a clear inclusion of some fictionalized elements that elevate the themes of the story, this film stays mostly true to the detailed rise and making of To Catch a Predator that builds toward the tense, chaotic showdown in Texas involving a targeted local official that infamously ended the show. We get to witness the blurring of many lines through this film, from the line between doing good and feeding the spectacle, to the line between real law enforcement and staged television, which highlights the sensationalist state of the media that occurred in the mid-2000s and unfortunately still continues today in different forms. You are constantly questioning the goals and morals of everyone involved, and the narrative never makes any side of the conversation completely right or wrong, making audiences feel engaged with the topics going on in unexpected ways.
All this on top of the involvement of child predators within our society can make this film an uncomfortable or even disturbing watch for many, but at the same time it is all very important given the current state of things. With all the important themes and mature topics this film’s story covers there are some things that do end up dragging it down from being perfect, with the first among them being the unexpected comedy this film has. There are some comedic moments involving Robert Pattinson’s performance as Chris Hansen that I can give the pass to, but there were some other moments seemingly played for laughs that I found deeply uncomfortable because it doesn’t feel right for some of the sequences and the topics this film covers. If anything, the comedy taints the messaging and serious subjects this film is trying to tackle and feels rather inappropriate in my view.
The second thing to drag down this film was the rather unnecessary inclusion of a subplot involving Chris Hansen dealing with a tabloid journalist trying to expose him for a certain controversy. While I understand it did actually happen and that it was done to show how Chris Hansen wasn’t perfect as a person, I found that it doesn’t really add much to the film as a whole and feels like it didn’t really need to be a part of the film when there is much more important things to explore and focus on.
The film may not necessarily be perfect on a narrative level but on a technical level it looks and feels phenomenal in every single way. Through mid-2000s aesthetic visuals, intense cinematography, beautiful lighting, and stellar editing, we get to see the tense and thrilling story feel far more enhanced and keep you completely on the edge of your seat by making it feel larger than life and not allowing a moment to breathe in between. The use of colored lighting and shadows really makes the impact of certain sequences hit harder and doesn’t hesitate to be incredibly artistic with its visuals to make it stand out. We also get a very haunting score by Ari Balouzian that further enhances the thrills of the film along with the visuals.
This film may not be perfect or completely rewatchable in my personal view, but I did like the film and I highly recommend watching it not just for Robert Pattinson’s performance but also for the story and themes that have a lot of important things to say in such a highly relevant time. Whether you are a fan of To Catch a Predator and Chris Hansen or not, this is a film worth watching at least once for what it has to offer, even if it may not be for everyone. I’m going to give Primetime a B+ = 89.
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