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“To Catch a Predator,” The NBC reality series that ran from 2004-07, revolved around the concept of luring child predators to a house under the guise they would meet up with a minor, and then exposing them on national TV. The film “Primetime,” which released Sept. 25, is a dramatization of this series and its host Chris Hansen, played by Robert Pattinson.
The film is set in 2006, when Hansen set out to make TV history after he had been given a primetime spot.
“Primetime” will not leave you bored for a second. The film’s run time is one hour and 49 minutes, and every minute serves a purpose. The film builds anticipation with an expert score, thunder that shakes the whole theatre and tension between characters that will leave you on the edge of your seat.
The film begins with a bang, dropping right into the filming of a “To Catch a Predator” episode. A grown man enter a house under the guise that he will be meeting an underage girl, who is a decoy actor played by Phoebe Bridgers. The man says he brought condoms and asks if the girl is sure her parents aren’t home. That is Hansen’s cue to enter the scene. He reveals to the predator he is on TV; the police raid the house and arrest him. On the surface, this seems like a noble cause, and Hansen seems like a hero. However, the film’s writers and Pattinson’s captivating, complex performance break down his perfection and nobility over the course of the film.
Shortly after this opening scene, Hansen is in the recording booth and there is the implication of his inner perfectionism. He repeats the voice-over for the show until his producer Andie Bender, played by Merritt Wever, tells him they are out of time. The film suggests nothing will ever be good enough for Hansen and displays how the pressures of fame and network TV affect him.
Hansen and Bender are then pulled into a meeting where they are told their show will take the primetime slot, and their goal is to beat out the competing ABC show “Lost” in viewership. This moment becomes the catalyst for everything that follows.
From this moment on, the film descends into a dark and unsettling thriller. Pattinson delivers a deconstruction of Hansen’s character. It is revealed that he is having an affair with a younger woman, and a newspaper threatens to reveal this information. Hansen begins to lose his mind during this; he starts to act irrationally and has multiple panic attacks and repeated breakdowns. Pattinson manages to make you fear, hate, admire and pity Hansen all at once. Pattinson absolutely disappears into this role and becomes unrecognizable. The character of Hanson breaks down and his mental health declines through every second of the film, as does his life and facade as a hero.
Hansen’s character is compelling because the movie shows deep down, he does want to help people. While Hansen wants to help children, it is clear the fame and money have clouded his judgment. He becomes conflicted about — and clearly traumatized by — the dark sides of humanity he sees daily. At its core, the film is a character study about how an originally noble pursuit can become twisted within the systems humans have created.
I didn’t expect this film to make me laugh, but some moments and lines are so absurd and disturbing I couldn’t help it. Particularly Merritt Wever is incredible every moment she is on screen and has some of the best lines in the film. Her character is portrayed as cold, calculated, incredibly smart and successful.
Andie doesn’t see herself as a hero, and unlike many of the other characters, the dark and depraved things going on around her don’t seem to affect her. Wever portrays Andie with such charisma, I couldn’t help but like her, while keeping her in a morally questionable space.
The cinematography in this film is unlike anything I have ever seen. This film makes you feel it in your soul; you are in the room, and you are on TV. The camera angles are incredibly innovative and risky. In one scene, three characters talk in the bathroom, and you get a shot only a fly on the wall could capture. It takes a bold move to choose not to focus directly on the speaking character, but rather to look at him through a mirror, at such an angle it seems you’re standing at the top corner of the room. The film is filled with unique shots like this, and it uses a traditional 2000s TV aspect ratio that travels back to 2006. The blue color grading and lighting are gorgeous and bring back a filmmaking aesthetic that seems lost to time. To round it out, Phoebe Bridgers’ single “On Video” perfectly captures the film’s artistic vision.
While “Primetime” depicts real events, it is not truly a biopic. It is highly doubtful the extreme weirdness and intensity with which Pattinson acts is reflective of who Hansen is in real life. The film also alters and exaggerates events for the plot. Accuracy, however, is not the point of this film; it is to make you question your own reality. While there are clear villains, identifying the heroes is a bit trickier. It breaks down the human instinct to view people in black and white or as strictly good or bad — nearly every character exists in a state of gray morality. Often, the best films leave us with more questions than we had before we sat down in the theater.
If weird, dark and confusing films with beautiful cinematography are your thing, check out “Primetime.” You won’t regret it.
Reach Olivia Kyazze at entertainment@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.
