In “Primetime,” Robert Pattinson plays Chris Hansen, host of NBC’s “To Catch a Predator,” in the mid-2000’s. The show saw Hansen confront child predators as part of police sting operations. The debate over whether the show was righteous, exploitative, or both swirls to this day, and there’s no real “right” answer, but “Primetime” clearly does not have a high opinion of Hansen or the show.
The movie follows Hansen and his producer Andie (Merritt Wever) as they prepare to move their show from late night to an earlier primetime slot. However, they’ll have to make the show more exciting by taking down more interesting targets. They pass up the opportunity to catch many predators in New Jersey to focus on one high-level “whale” in Texas.
Everybody’s life is a mess. Hansen is about to be exposed for an affair. Andie is way over-budget and under-appreciated. New “decoy” actor Dan (a surprisingly compelling Skyler Gosondo) is in over his head both performing and living with his role in the operation. The only way for these people to feel better about themselves is to catch unforgiveable child predators and hit them with the full force of their insecurities.
“Primetime” certainly paints the ratings-chasing Hansen as sleazy, though reports of him coming off as an outright villain have been exaggerated. Nor is this stealthily a “horror” movie, despite what the tone of the trailers would have you believe. Maybe it should have taken the horror route, as it struggled to hold my interest with some of its editing choices. I don’t recommend spending your primetime hours on this one.
Grade: C
“Primetime” is rated R for disturbing sexual material, graphic nudity, some violent content, and language.
Its running time is 110 minutes.
Contact Bob Garver at rrg251@nyu.edu.
