“Primetime” is tougher on ambitious TV types than pedophiles.
Harsh? Knee-jerk? Fair? How about all three?
Robert Pattinson’s one-note turn as NBC’s Chris Hansen is mesmerizing and cold, much like the film itself. There’s plenty to explore around the morality of gotcha journalism and networks goosing the ratings by any means necessary.
What we have with “Primetime” is a repetitive lecture brought to life by a dazzling array of closeups and orchestral riffs.
Pattinson plays Chris Hansen, who rose to fame by confronting child predators minutes before they met their intended targets. It’s a brilliant concept on paper, and in 2006 that gambit drove huge ratings.
It also got plenty of child predators off the streets. That’s a good thing.
Right?
Now, NBC execs want to bring Hansen’s parlor game into, you guessed it, prime time TV. The pressure is on, meaning Hansen must deliver juicier and juicier targets while keeping the show’s “decoys” in line.
Said “decoys” are actors who appear to be underage, like poor Dan (Skyler Gisondo, “Superman”). The actor is 30 but playing a 23 year old.
He’s not remotely convincing as a pre-teen, but OK.
Hansen is obsessed with the show, his brand and bagging the biggest targets around. So when his team suggests they’re tracking a pedophile with a well-known reputation, Hansen doesn’t smell blood.
He smells ratings gold.
Director Lance Oppenheim, making his narrative debut, drenches the screen with fascinating imagery. Extreme, garish close-ups, A tight aspect ratio to add to the film’s claustrophobic design. A scenery-chewing lead who uses his impressive skill to make Hansen into a monster.
And it works.
Was he a monster? A vain TV reporter who struck small-screen gold? A man who cared more about ratings than the souls of his victims or colleagues?
Perhaps. This is all “inspired” by true events.
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The narrative is still soulless and cold, never granting Hansen a dollop of humanity. Heck, even Dr. Hannibal Lecter came off as charming in between snacks.
Hansen is a 24/7 monster. He forces his young children to watch his wildly inappropriate TV segments to feed his ego. The film allows Pattinson just one scene of consequence with his wife (Anna Faris, wasted) and shows him stepping out with a younger woman in a very cruel sequence.
And when poor Dan is flummoxed by his first decoy assignment, Hansen is there to reassure him he’s doing the Lord’s work. He doesn’t give a damn about the wannabe actor’s heart. Maybe “Primetime” should have told the story from Dan’s perspective.
Pattinson’s performance is meticulous and impressive. It’s also one-dimensional in a way he should have worked to avoid at all costs.
“Primetime” establishes the tone and purpose early on, and essentially regurgitates it for the next hour. Anyone associated with broadcast TV is ugly on the inside or out. Sometimes both.
Motives are always impure.
Robert Pattinson didn’t initially plan to star as Chris Hansen in ‘Primetime,’ but director Lance Oppenheim says Four Loko, gummies, and script rewrites helped change the actor’s mind. https://t.co/VQLf423kaU
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) September 22, 2026
Journalists deserve endless criticism in the modern era. And the methods on display here are iffy on a good day. So why not explore the fight between crime and TV punishment? Let the main players sort through their emotions, wondering if there’s a better way to snag predators.
An early scene on an airplane works best, if only the rest of the film matched its dramatic heft. A stranger (Creed Bratton of “The Office” fame) hails Hansen as doing great work while the two share a seat next to each other.
The moment allows Pattinson to flash Hansen’s false modesty while suggesting that exposing a predator to a TV audience is the worst punishment of all.
The great Bokeem Woodbine appears briefly as a Texas lawman, a blustery subplot that adds another layer of buffoonery to the story. It’s the Lone Star State, so we expect a Hollywood film to mock its larger-than-life mojo. And it does, but that element merely adds to the film’s oafish nature.
It’s hard to imagine the real Chris Hansen watching “Primetime,” no matter how flawed he may or may not be in real life. For everyone else, it’s a less personal slog, but a slog nonetheless.
HiT or Miss: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 100 minutes
Where to Watch: In theaters Sept. 25
Family Friendly? No. Nudity, adult language, mature themes and suggestive conversations – R
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