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Down the Twisted Rabbit-Hole of Primetime

To Catch a Predator was such a distinctly 2000s artefact that people not around for it might be puzzled by its very conceit. A show that made a spectacle out of “catching” sexual predators, it was part of that initial reality TV boom of the 2000s -even as it was billed sometimes as an investigative journalism program. It got a lot of attention off of that public desire to watch bad people humiliated and punished (even though very few of the subjects from the show ever saw substantial prison time), and a little bit of a flare for vigilante justice. The show opined to be a bastion of justice, yet there was something just kind of seedy and gross about it. At that time and even more so now, Americans have an unusual preoccupation with pedophilia, and it was something that Chris Hansen, the creator of To Catch a Predator, was clearly aware of and keen to exploit. And as the man who always came around the corner to confront the would-be child molesters, he set himself up quite well to be America’s predator-catching hero.
Primetime, the feature narrative debut of documentarian Lance Oppenheim, is compelled by the psychology and ethics of this man and his program -and it is no wonder that the real Hansen has been quite vocal in his distaste for the film which does portray him in a twisted, broadly unflattering light. But sometimes that is necessary for a biopic, and certainly necessary for this movie, which finds in Hansen a suitable vessel through which to examine the modern hero complex and what really motivates that personality within the context of their supposed good deeds.
Robert Pattinson was initially uninterested in acting in this movie, on which he was producer for some time before agreeing to take on the mantle of its lead due to certain stylistic adjustments to the script. It is a good thing he changed his mind because his portrait of Hansen is captivating, eccentric, and invigorating -perhaps one of his very best performances. He channels Hansen terrifically in his first appearance in the midst of a sting, nailing the showman attitude of smug confidence that was Hansen’s staple when busting predators. As the film begins in 2006, To Catch a Predator is already a hit show on Dateline NBC, and as it is promoted to a coveted time-slot Hansen looks towards boosting the show’s ratings by aiming to find and catch a high profile predator, culminating in the dramatic 2007 sting that ended the series. Simultaneously the story focuses on Dan Plum (Skyler Gisondo) a young actor looking for a big break, who gets a job as one of the show’s decoy teenagers, and the apprehensions and discomfort the experience leaves him with.
The crux of the movie’s character study can really be boiled down to one scene. Not long after his first job as a decoy (in which the predator unexpectedly exposed himself), Dan meets with Hansen for dinner and expresses some reservations over the nature of his job. Hansen explains that what Dan is doing is more than just acting -that he is saving children from abuse; ultimately declaring that his job is that of a superhero. It is very clear that this is how Hansen sees himself, how he justifies things like putting actors in these traumatizing situations, and perhaps what he tells himself about his motivations in chasing success. In an earlier scene, a man talking to him bluntly asks why he doesn’t just kill the bastards he catches, and Hansen has to have a moment to think before suggesting that what he does may be worse. What he does also gets great ratings.
The film is a compelling time capsule in both subject and presentation. Oppenheim shoots the film in a claustrophobic aspect ratio and bathes the cinematography in a highly-saturated sheen resembling the look of a lot of reality TV of the 2000s. Deeper than that it captures a kind of sleazy essence in that genre at the time -characterized often by disturbing sensationalism in stuff like Fear Factor and The Biggest Loser. It is a perfect tone for what is crafted as a narrative worthy of one of those shows -accentuating things like the confined spaces of the sting houses, where under crude light Hansen will convene with his tenacious producer Andie (Merritt Wever) or Xavier (Matthew Maher) the tech wizard who poses as teens in chat rooms. At times, the film will take on surreal definitions -most starkly in Hansen's perspective, occasionally fading out of tangible reality as he imagines a literal monster, deriving from a past assignment in India, and critical to his image of himself as a "cleanser of evil".
It is presumably for details such as this that Pattinson was convinced to play the part.  And it is where the movie loses some vestige of credibility, a notable leap in characterizing Hansen as not just ego-driven but potentially insane. Still it makes up just one overzealous part of a thrilling performance that is both big and intense and carefully nuanced. He mimics Hansen's tenor and mannerisms very well, but he also nails the finer points of this character's performance of power. How every action is distinctly direct and methodical, how a glint of joy can be seen in his eye when he gets to deliver a cutting line to a predator or when he gets something he wants. One of the movie's most curious corners is focused on Hansen's family life -two sons whom he is distant from, trying to impress by showing them an episode of his show late one night. And there's the matter of an affair that is caught, with a timeline for its public exposure that partly motivates his desire for a big-name catch to drown it out. As the pressure mounts on this, Pattinson’s performance becomes subtly more manic, the film built around several valves priming to go off at once.
It is also worth noting that Gisondo gives his best performance yet as the young actor in over his head but desperate to prove himself. He’s an excellent foil to Pattinson’s Hansen -drawn to his charisma but wary -driven in some ways by the challenge of this job but disturbed by what it puts him through, and what an association with the program might mean for him long-term. It’s a lot of good more subtle acting from Gisondo, amplifying a critical perspective for the film. Wever likewise shines as Hansen’s perhaps more professional partner, but one who is also addicted to a kind of righteous thrill in what the program does. An interesting beat of the film concerns her being scouted for another program and her temptation but ultimate desire to go into the lion’s den with Hansen. It is a particularly cold performance but deeply involved. The rest of the cast are pretty good, from Maher and Bokeem Woodbine as a Texas police chief, to Anna Faris as Hansen’s wife and Phoebe Bridgers as a female decoy who takes Dan under her wing. And then there is Alex Winter, harrowing, as the man who will bring the show down.
The film builds to the infamous episode that would end To Catch a Predator, here illustrated as the result of Hansen’s need to catch a “white whale” and cut a lot of corners in doing so. It’s an apt metaphor, because Oppenheim sees Hansen a bit like a Captain Ahab, minus the vengeful motivation. The motivations presented though -ego and clout (perhaps that Emmy he longs for the show to win) are just as destructive. And the film is as cogent an exercise as any in where that leads. Oppenheim flexes the tension into his last act, plays to the grandiosity of Hansen’s ambitions coming close to realization (the score by Ari Balouzian does some strong work here too). The momentum is immediate and relentless, the chaos of individual stings coalescing into an enormous operation. It all feels like the climax of an especially dramatic season of reality television. That is after all how Hansen designed it. In Primetime, opposite Lost.
Primetime itself gets a little bit lost in the annals of Hansen’s psyche and the allusions to his demon and savior complex. But it is an intensely interesting piece nonetheless, with some thrilling performances led by Pattinson, and remarkably composed by Oppenheim -recreating that culture and media world out of which our current equivalents grew. In a small way, the particulars of the Trump age can be glimpsed in this movie’s uncomfortable nostalgia. Hansen was an egotistical reality TV star of the 2000s. Another egotistical reality TV star of the 2000s now sits in the White House. It’s not too much to draw a line along the theme of ego and a cultural obsession with sexual predation and… you see how this looks, right?

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