Robert Pattinson delivers a compelling performance as Chris Hansen, the swaggering TV host, in Lance Oppenheim's debut feature, Primetime, a dramatisation of the 2000s series To Catch A Predator. Despite strong acting, the film is muddled and unconvincing, touching on heavy themes only at a surface level.
A familiar routine
The opening scene shows Hansen reciting explicit online exchanges between an adult man, played by Tony Revolori, and a researcher posing as a minor. When Revolori's character agrees to meet the 'minor', he is greeted by a decoy in a house fitted with hidden cameras, with Hansen ready to pounce. Hansen then enters, asks the predator to 'have a seat right there', and begins questioning him, while a police unit waits outside for the arrest.
The routine repeats, and To Catch A Predator becomes so popular it is moved to the primetime slot. To compete with ABC's Lost, Hansen and his team seek increasingly outrageous methods. They hire a new decoy, Dan, played by Skyler Gisondo, an aspiring actor who performs well despite being thrown in at the deep end.
Losing the moral compass
As Hansen and co. go to great lengths to be 'bigger than Lost', things unravel and the film becomes muddled. Subplots about an extra-marital affair and a producer being offered a rival network job feel tacked-on. Important issues, such as the legal argument of entrapment, remain unaddressed.
The film raises questions about ethics, exploitation, the trauma of decoy actors, backstage dynamics, TV ratings, and the abused children themselves. Yet it only scratches the surface of Hansen, despite Pattinson's performance, and never explores the morality of America's enjoyment in watching these predators squirm.
A superficial take
Primetime touches on all these themes fleetingly, feeling almost exploitative itself in using child abuse as subject matter without saying anything meaningful. The excellent performances and stylish, neo-noir atmosphere carry the film, but when it ends, viewers are left wondering what it was trying to say.
