By George & Josh Bate
In the first act of Primetime, which made its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin this weekend, Robert Pattinson’s Chris Hansen stands in front of a vending machine bursting with lights so bright it’s almost hard to look at. Hansen purchases a Rice Krispies treat, and watches as the snack gets stuck in the machine’s mechanism. Frustrated, Hansen calls the number plastered on the front; a clearly disinterested man answers. Hansen then introduces himself in the most comical of fashions, but is completely sincere in his delivery, saying – “I’m Chris Hansen with Dateline NBC.”
It’s a seemingly innocuous moment, and one that’s certainly played for humor, but Hansen’s one simple line outlines everything about his character in Primetime. He’s all consumed by his role as the host of To Catch a Predator, so much so that he’s barely a real human being. Instead, Hansen acts akin to a mythical figure, playing a role that he believes people want from him. Hansen is obsessed with fame and progressing his career to the next level, and it’s this deep-rooted insecurity and vanity that drives the plot of Primetime.
Directed by Lance Oppenheim (in his feature film debut, having previously only worked on documentaries), Primetime follows Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson) as NBC bumps To Catch a Predator to the most coveted of evening slots on the network’s schedule, putting it in direct competition with Lost. With this promotion comes expectation, however, as the network demands that Hansen make the upcoming episodes the most wild yet.
One of the most immediately recognizable aspects of Primetime is its style. This may be Oppenheim’s first time in the director’s chair in a scripted film, but he establishes a distinctive style and direction almost immediately. The film is filled with uncomfortably intimate close ups, with the camera getting right up into the faces of the characters. There are plenty of point of view shots, too, with Robert Pattinson often staring directly into the lens of the camera, making it feel as if he’s looking beyond the camera and right at the audience. With plenty of lurid color and analog textures that resembles a 2000s television nightmare, Oppenheim gives Primetime an aesthetic and atmosphere fitting to the unease of its subject matter.
Pattinson looking right at the camera, testing the audience in what almost feels like a staring contest, is one of the many things that the English actor is tasked with doing in Primetime. Pattinson, who is in the middle of a stellar stretch of his career currently, crafts a challenging, multi-faceted character of real-life predator-catcher Chris Hansen. As the lead character, there’s a certain expectation that Hansen will be at least somewhat likable. At the same time, the true story being told demands that Hansen’s mask be taken off, exposing his narcissism, self-centeredness, and disturbing willingness to throw virtually everyone under the bus if it will help him.
Pattinson somehow manages to pull this all off. His version of Hansen is equal parts disgusting and disturbing; the influence of Jake Gyllenhaal’s Nightcrawler character is apparent the longer the film goes on, but what Pattinson does here is arguably even more unsettling. Primetime, quite frankly, portrays Hansen as an absolute maniac – driven mad not only by the pressure of the National Enquirer’s looming story on him and his affair with a younger woman, but his insatiable desire to become top dog on network television.
Having a main character be this self-absorbed and off-putting risks derailing audience’s investment in the story and its protagonist, although Oppenheim and Pattinson ensure engagement never wavers. If Oppenheim and company push Chris Hansen too close to the edge of true madness, then the viewer may understandably feel the desire to disconnect from someone so sickening and potentially too larger-than-life and unrealistic. Oppenheim and Pattinson certainly get close in this regard, but neither goes over the top with their collective portrait of Hansen. Instead, the television personality is made to be as nauseating and repulsive as possible without going overboard, which is a testament not only Pattinson and Oppenheim, but screenwriter Ajon Singh’s script as well.
When a story positions a character as unappealing and crazed as Chris Hansen as the protagonist, there often comes a foil, someone who exists as the antithesis of our lead and everything he stands for. In Primetime, this character is Skyler Gisondo’s Dan Plumb, a naive and bright-eyed aspiring actor who’s hired to play a male decoy on To Catch a Predator but, crucially, isn’t told what the show is or what his role would be. Dan, referred to as Decoy Dan, is a breath of fresh air from Chris Hansen, providing an interesting contrast from the lead character and infusing the story with a much-needed sense of innocence and kindness.
Dan plays an especially prominent role in the film’s third act, when he, along with the rest of the To Catch a Predator team, attempt to lure a district attorney to the sting house. When they realize he isn’t coming, Hansen makes the decision to go to him, and what follows is a reenactment of actual events that took place during the filming of the show’s last episode. Louis Conradt is the real politician in question, and he gets a small yet effective role in Primetime’s climax.
Primetime offers a thought-provoking commentary on the price of fame and the morals people are willing to sacrifice in pursuit of it. The film is particularly interested in the increasingly blurry line between journalism and entertainment, where the pursuit of a compelling story can become indistinguishable from the exploitation of the people or issues at its center. At the heart of it all is a fascinating examination of a man who considers himself morally superior to those around him, even as his own actions reveal a willingness to cross many of the same ethical lines he condemns in others. That contradiction gives Primetime much of its thematic weight, presenting a character whose sense of righteousness becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish from the very moral compromises he believes himself above.
VERDICT: 8.5/10
Making its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest, Primetime is a stylish and unsettling character study of Chris Hansen, portrayed by Robert Pattinson as a man so consumed by his role as the host of To Catch a Predator that he has become barely recognizable as a real human being. Driven by insecurity, vanity, and an insatiable desire to become the top dog on network television, Hansen is portrayed as an increasingly disturbing and self-absorbed figure who is willing to throw virtually everyone under the bus if it helps advance his career. Lance Oppenheim establishes a distinctive visual style filled with intimate close-ups, POV shots, lurid colors, and analog textures that give the film the feel of a 2000s television nightmare, while Pattinson delivers a challenging and multi-faceted performance that keeps Hansen nauseating and repulsive without pushing him into outright caricature. It is a testament to Pattinson’s performance in the film that, after a remarkably accomplished filmography to date, his turn as Chris Hansen is the best of his career. Skyler Gisondo, meanwhile, provides a much-needed contrast as Dan Plumb, an aspiring actor whose innocence and kindness stand in stark opposition to Hansen.
Thematically, Primetime offers a thought-provoking commentary on the price of fame, the morals people are willing to sacrifice in pursuit of it, and the increasingly blurry line between journalism and entertainment. At its center is a fascinating examination of a man who considers himself morally superior to others even as his own actions reveal a willingness to cross many of the same ethical lines he condemns in others, making for an unsettling portrait of a man whose sense of righteousness becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish from the very moral compromises he believes himself above.
One of the best movies of the year and bolstering an awards-worthy lead performance from Robert Pattinson, Primetime demonstrates that sometimes the most effective way to catch a predator is to turn the camera around.