Robert Pattinson stalks the giggly creep-out “Primetime” like a network TV Nosferatu. His character, Chris Hansen — based on the journalist of the same name — is monstrous and puny, dangerous and pathetic. The real Hansen is best known as the host of “To Catch a Predator,” a recurring segment on the NBC newsmagazine “Dateline” that resembled a catfishing scam. Using adult decoys posing as underage adolescents, the show trolled the internet for men who wanted to have sex with them. When a guy showed up to meet a decoy, Hansen would swoop in to confront him on camera, followed shortly by the police.
Soon after it first aired in 2004, “To Catch a Predator” became a hit and pop-cultural fodder, never mind that it was mimicking the abuse of minors on prime time. Conan O’Brien parodied the show on the Emmys, and Tina Fey used it to mine laughs on the NBC comedy “30 Rock.” That Hansen appeared on another NBC show was par for the synergistic media course. It suggested that he was a good corporate soldier, and that he had enough confidence to be in on the joke. Or maybe he was unself-aware. Detractors called “To Catch a Predator” tasteless and a witch hunt; some argued that it broke the law.
Whatever Hansen’s reasons for guest-starring on “30 Rock,” his appearance made it clear that he understood his role as an entertainer. This is scarcely, well, news. The fuzzy line between American broadcast news and entertainment has long been a topic of hand-wringing, including in the mainstream media. It’s a line that seemed irrevocably blurred by 1958, when the journalist Edward R. Murrow delivered a famous speech warning that TV (and radio) news had become “an incompatible combination of show business, advertising, and news.” That criticism sounds quaintly old fashioned, particularly given that every facet of ordinary life — birding, cooking, politicking, policing, popping zits — has been turned into entertainment. Everything is now show biz.
That much is obvious in “Primetime” — written by Ajon Singh and directed by Lance Oppenheim — which opens with tight shots of Pattinson’s Chris Hansen rehearsing before a mirror, readying himself for his close-up while wreathed in ominous shadows. It’s 2006, Chris and the “Predator” team — Merritt Wever plays its producer, Andie Bender — are a well-oiled machine. With the support of a shadowy watchdog group known as Perverted Justice, they chase down targets in the name of the greater good. A new guy is about to make his inadvertent entrance into a sting house where the “Predator” crew is lying in wait with cameras, vibrating with anticipation. He enters to meet the decoy, Del (the singer Phoebe Bridgers). It’s showtime.
If the opener with Chris prepping before a mirror evokes “Raging Bull,” by the time the host is walking down the staircase to confront the latest target, he’s in full-blown Norma Desmond mode. Much like the self-deluded Norma, Chris seems oblivious to how he appears, on camera and off. The real life Hansen has the bland good looks and weightlessness of a lot of television personalities, like a Reporter Ken Doll. By contrast, there’s nothing conventional looking about Pattison, who over the years has learned how to deploy his runway-model appearance to great, expressive effect, using it to attract and repulse. Here, the actor puts up a banal facade that he and the filmmakers slowly dismantle until all that’s left is a cadaverous ruin.
The movie tracks Chris, as he eagerly, foolishly, tragically grapples with the success of “To Catch a Predator.” With great ratings comes great responsibility or something, specifically to the network bosses. (Jeff Zucker, a former NBC executive, pops up as himself.) Chris might be sincere about wanting to catch bad guys, and there’s an involved, superfluous flashback to his earlier tenure reporting on child trafficking abroad (which mostly just proves that the filmmakers were working with a nice budget). In time, the movie’s tone shifts from the darkly amused to somewhat less amused when the show hires a new decoy, the freckled-face Dan (a very strong Skyler Gisondo), an aspiring actor who naïvely misunderstands what kind of production he’s been cast in.
Dan gives the story some emotion, and the character’s sweetness and sincerity throw Chris and Andie’s mutually beneficial opportunism into obvious relief. There’s not much more, though it’s nice to see Alex Winter in a brief, potent turn as a public official who becomes a target of the show. Winter helps push the movie into depths it doesn’t remain in. That’s too bad. It looks good and moves well, and the dark, saturated colors and visual grittiness add some fine Expressionistic texture. Yet it’s hard to know to what end, or to care. The filmmakers giggle at Chris and the “Predator” spectacle, and then cap the laughs with a faint, unpersuasive critique. That its finger-wagging is as hollow as Chris’s is presumably the point (or one of them), though not especially interesting.
Primetime Rated R for language and suggestive topics, including the adult sex exploitation of teenage minors. Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes. In theaters.
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