Release Date – 28th October 2026, Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 49 minutes, Director – Lance Oppenheim
When his show, To Catch A Predator, is moved to a primetime slot host Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson) becomes focused on getting the biggest, most attention-grabbing catch possible.
A sinister feeling lies in the background of Primetime. While claiming to be “cleansing the world of an ancient evil” Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson) and co are more focused on grabbing America’s attention with the shock of what they’re trying to get rid of than safety or each other. It leads Hansen, tinged with threat and intimidation, even in a bright room he feels sidelit, to try and get the biggest catch possible when his paedophile hunter show To Catch A Predator is moved to primetime – “we’re gonna be bigger than Lost.”
As the team – which includes Merritt Weaver’s producer Andie Bender, even more intent on ratings and success than Hansen, bringing in elements of greed as she proves she’s in the game for herself – follows different leads to find a catch that will really get America talking they disregard new recruit Dan (Skyler Gisondo), in his early-20s he’s brought in to play what the predators think is the child they’ve been talking to. Dan hopes that the gig will get him his SAG card, and lead to more acting opportunities, but soon realises that the work puts him in direct risk, and puts little focus on him in the final cut. Through the show he tries to make his own opportunities, or get more of a spotlight through improvisation instead of letting Hansen make his dramatic entrance before saying “take a seat.”
With each lead and anonymous figure being chased the film itself has a rapid pace. 109 minutes flies by as director Lance Oppenheim and editor Daniel Garber get across the fast-paced responses of the TV production crew to leads and where the biggest story might be. Culminating in a tense final sequence which uses multiple perspectives to great effect, holding the tension amongst a sense of dejection in the after effects of everything. It’s a sequence that pushes the cinema into silence as the noises on-screen crackle amongst the quiet elsewhere. Activity summing up a battle for ratings and conversation – Hansen appears to be in a feud for the attention that NBC’s Dateline anchor has – while getting at the darker edges that are in the film.
Primetime never forgets the upfront darker and sinister sides that come from the focus of To Catch A Predator. They’re very much present as the central focuses use it for their own intentions. Amongst the humour scattered throughout, well conveyed by Pattinson who brilliantly plays Hansen as wandering between smug and agitated, some of which has its own streak of darkness. It makes the film entertaining in its assuredness as it strides forward with a confident pace that catches the audience in the opening scene and keeps them in place until the ending, which feels not long after, there’s an enjoyable film here that captures multiple dark streaks and makes the most of them for a film about obsession for the corporate side of TV.
Robert Pattinson is brilliant as Chris Hansen, capturing the humour and dark streaks, both entertaining and sinister, within Primetime’s fast-paced and suspenseful run-time.
