“Primetime” transports its audience back to the early 2000s with its dramatization of the NBC network show “To Catch a Predator.” Starring a face we’ve seen a lot this year, Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen. The film collapses events from the show’s run time of 2004 to 2007 as well as real life events of Hansen’s that occurred long after the show’s film time in 2011, into a succinct couple of months for dramatic flare.
While the film did a great job of showing the motivations and challenges of filming a show as jarring as “To Catch a Predator,” the few flaws it had stem from the fact that no one on the set or in production ever reached out to the real Hansen to ask him for his input on the portrayal of himself or the events he bore witness too.
In an interview on SiriusXM’s “The Dan Abrams Show” Hansen said, “It [felt] very exploitive to me…It [felt] sneaky and disingenuous to me that they would do this and not even say, ‘This is what we’re doing.’ ” Hansen was, however, invited to the premiere but with the condition that he would have to sign an NDA upon viewing it early. He refused and has since been contemplating taking legal action.
“The thought process here is that, if you protest it too much, do they turn it into a promotional situation where, ‘this is the movie Chris Hansen doesn’t want you to see.’ Well, in reality, it’s the movie Chris Hansen hasn’t even seen yet, so it’s a hard question to answer.” Said Hansen reflecting on the ongoing internal debate of pursuing a lawsuit.
Personally, my biggest gripe with the film was that it invented a plot line just for the sake of it, not to help tell the true story of Hansen and the development of his show. In the film the producer of the show, Andie Bender, was played by Merritt Wever, and while Wever did an excellent job depicting a struggling female producer who was not getting the equal treatment and respect in her position as her male counterparts and coworkers were, I was disheartened to learn that the character was entirely fiction. The real Hansen did not have a woman as his producer, and the drama around whether she would or wouldn’t stay working for Hansen was entirely created as a fictional plot line for the story to add more intrigue.
Another entirely fictitious element to this film lands within the movie’s title, “Primetime.” A major motivator for Pattinson’s Hansen was that the show needed to land its “whale” or shock-factor episode in order to take over the primetime spot on the NBC network. Which in the film was currently being held by the television show “Lost.” This driving plot force was entirely false, “To Catch a Predator,” in reality, had already been given the primetime spot by NBC Dateline’s executive Jeff Zucker.
As mentioned the actors Pattinson and Wever, do an excellent job in their roles, but so does Skyler Gisondo who plays Dan Plumb, another real person who had a role in the show. The real Dan Plumb was actually Dan Schrack, otherwise known as “Decoy Dan.” Gisondo did a great job depicting a young baby-faced inspiring actor navigating starting his career trying to catch his big break, while also using his acting abilities in a much more serious manner to catch predators. I enjoyed his acting so much in this film, I hope we get to see more of him in the future in other projects.
The other thing I think this movie got right, is its use of color and effects. Many of the shots felt captured on older cameras from the early 2000s. The shooting of the episodes throughout the film felt yanked straight from my TV in 2006. This added to the feeling of being taken back in time as an audience member. I also feel the name dropping of other network shows playing at the time and while fictitious, still prevalent name dropping of these shows had me reflecting on what we enjoyed consuming from TV back then, in contrast to what we see now on our streaming platforms. It was also interesting to be reminded just how influential and important “To Catch a Predator” was in setting the stage for the media to help inform the public about true crime happening in their communities.
Before knowing about the fictionalized plot lines, and dramatized portions of this film, I can say in the theater I enjoyed watching this film. The pacing and the acting were both done well. Pattinson continues to surprise us with his range, however, I feel the intrigue to see this film would have been lost if not for knowing the show and remembering Hansen as an iconic household name of the early 2000s. Add in the information that falsifies the story as portrayed on the big screen to that of the real show and the real Hansen’s life, the movie loses its appeal to me.
Do I recommend watching it? If you are a Pattinson fan, and have found yourself consumed in his acting journey this year, then yes go see it while you can in theaters. But if you are someone who feels drawn in by the nostalgic appeal, and were hoping to see a film dish out the drama behind one of America’s most exposing crime shows, maybe do your own research first or opt to watch it from your living room at home just as you would back in the 2000s watching the actual TV show. “Primetime” earns the most average of 3’s on my spicy scale.