Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Lance Oppenheim
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Matthew Maher, Bokeem Woodbine, Phoebe Bridgers
The decline of western civilisation can be traced back to 1992 and the premiere of MTV's The Real World. That Big Brother forerunner, which placed a bunch of fame-hungry nobodies in a house together, became the network's biggest hit. Soon, MTV was replacing music with reality shows, eventually excising music altogether. What's surprising is that it took almost a decade for the rest of TV-land to catch up, but by the early 2000s every major network in the western world was rapidly cancelling scripted drama to make room for the far cheaper concept of filming the public rather than stars. It soon became apparent that the reality shows that attracted the biggest audiences were those on the seedy side, with viewers tuning in to watch everyday people expose their worst selves. The obsession with the dregs of humanity led to NBC's hit show To Catch a Predator. Hosted by Chris Hansen, the show lured sexual predators to homes filled with hidden cameras, the child they had been grooming online quickly revealed to be an adult actor before Hansen springs out of the shadows to let them know they're being filmed, but it ain't Candid Camera. The show was cancelled in 2007 when one sting operation ended in a Texas District Attorney blowing his brains out. Debate has raged since over whether the show was performing a valuable service or simply exploiting the worst of humanity.
Director Lance Oppenheim was inspired to make Primetime when his wife hired Hansen to record a Cameo video for her husband. Oppenheim was fascinated by how Hansen was essentially parodying his persona, and that's what we get from Robert Pattinson, who plays the role of Hansen here as the latest in the British actor's growing line of oddballs.
The movie opens in 2006. To Catch a Predator has gotten so popular that NBC moves it to a Friday night slot where it will compete with ABC's juggernaut Lost. This puts pressure on Hansen and producer Andie Bender (Merritt Wever playing a fictional amalgamation of various real life figures) to deliver more shocking content. The whale Hansen is searching for appears to swim into view when his team find evidence that an online predator they've been communicating with may be a politician of significant status.
Oppenheim presents this as a dizzying mash-up of various camera formats, Altman-esque zooms and grotesquely intrusive close-ups that turn even Pattinson's pretty boy face into an image that will put you off your popcorn. But it's largely style over substance, as the movie never really presents a coherent take on its subject. I knew nothing about Hansen before watching Primetime, and I'm just as ignorant now. The controversial host is reduced to a caricature here, all nerves and neuroses, even seeing literal demons lurking in the shadows. Pattinson's portrayal is even more vampiric than Edward Cullen; when he see him gliding down a staircase to confront a predator he resembles Dracula greeting Jonathan Harker. A subplot involving Hansen's affair with a younger woman goes nowhere, and if the intention is to draw a parallel with the men he targets, that is wildly offensive.
More interesting is the storyline of Dan (Skyler Gisondo), a young actor hired to play the role of a decoy pretending to be a 13-year-old boy. Dan arrives wide-eyed and fresh-faced but becomes increasingly psychologically scarred by his experience. Desperate for approval from Hansen, Dan becomes something of a surrogate son to the host, a Robin to his Batman. Whenever Dan expresses doubts, Hansen hits him with the "you're either with me or them" line. Another subplot sees Bender weighing up whether or not to betray Hansen by accepting an offer to move to ABC, but despite Wever's impressive performance as a woman coming to terms with the fact that she is addicted to sensationalism, it's an aside that amounts to nothing.
It's the quality of the performances and the brooding scuzziness of Primetime's presentation that makes it watchable. But when the credits roll and we take stock of what we've witnessed it all feels a bit empty. Still, it's a more rewarding experience than watching two hours of reality TV.
Primetime is in UK/ROI cinemas from October 28th.
