Cameras switch on, static buzzes, the stage is ready. Based on true events, we meet Chris Hansen at the height of his career in 2006, presenting Dateline NBC’s ‘To Catch a Predator’. Sleek suit fitted, script prepared, London Bridge by Fergie blares, setting the scene for a highly stylised film, written and edited with intensity and wit.
Inspired by Esquire’s 2007 article ‘Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die’, the film follows the rise of the TV show, and the pressure Chris Hansen puts on himself to prove to the network executives why he should be in the primetime slot. The article is adapted in a way that puts you mostly inside the minds of Chris (played by Robert Pattinson) and Dan (played by Skyler Gisondo), the actor hired to play the decoy who the predators meet when in the set up house. For Chris, this is real detective work, destroying monsters who want access to innocent children. For Dan, it’s a credit that will hopefully allow him to continue his dream of becoming an actor.
Robert Pattinson has been all over our screens for the last few years, consistently proving his talent in a wide variety of roles. He plays Chris with an intensity which questions what it means to be famous, a father, a husband, diving behind the mirrored reflection on the morals all humans have. He’s brilliant, imperfectly playing a pop culture figure with a script that lets us guess what might have been happening behind the scenes.
Someone else who really stood out for me in the film was Phoebe Bridgers. Having only made cameos in two features prior, she stands out in her role as Del, a member of group ‘Perverted Justice’ who takes on their targets by acting as a minor. Over and over, Bridgers proves her artistic talent and does so in bucketfuls throughout the film. She’s even written the credits song.
The film often comes back to Pattinson saying, “what would have happened if I wasn’t here?” It’s a rhetorical catchphrase, the audience taking at face value what is going on and the idea of good that comes from it – a predator is being called out and removed from society. But as the film plays out, it becomes something we aren’t sure how to answer anymore, seeing Pattinson’s Chris Hansen descend further into stubborn relentlessness.
As someone who didn’t watch Chris Hansen on screen as part of Dateline, I can confirm you don’t need to have any specific knowledge prior to watching. There are mentions and archive clips of mid 2000s reality TV and scripted schedules, but nothing overtly alienating viewers new to the world. I really enjoyed getting to grips with the story and characters through director Lance Oppenheim’s maximalist vision. Using blues and reds as key saturating colours, we switch between feelings of thriller, horror, even sci-fi, keeping us on our toes as morals fluctuate.
In some ways, we are the network executives, the ones pressing ‘record’ on the cameras, voyeurs of situations that were worryingly uncomfortable yet easy to watch in the film. Oppenheim gives his characters the upper hand, the responsibility to do the right thing, whether the individuals were swayed by professional or personal choices. Overall, we are presented with a time in television where there were no restrictions, only extremes, pushing further and further for views. Primetime starts conversations about duty of care, consent, if playing God and taking good versus evil into our own hands is allowed. Are these characters just as morally bad as the ones they portray that way?
Primetime is hypnotising and haunting, encouraging comedy in moments you shouldn’t be laughing at. But it knows what it is and excels at that completely, putting the viewer on camera and behind it, uniquely standing out against the top true crime content and biopics that flood our screens.
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