ROBERT PATTINSON IN PRIMETIME
L'abîme appelle l'abîme
Robert Pattinson has made a practice of trying new, different, interesting directors. This tme he works with Lance Oppenheim, an American filmmaker and documentarian known for blending nonfiction storytelling with heightened cinematic formalism and "docu-fantasia". Unlike traditional fly-on-the-wall documentarians, Oppenheim treats reality as material to be carefully shaped. He embraces a highly stylized, meticulously composed visual aesthetic that often feels closer to a narrative feature film. Well, this time it is a narrative feature film, Oppenheim's first.
Pattinson stars in it as Chris Hansen, the emcee of "To Catch a Predator," a show that was on from late 2004 to late 2007. "Primetime": the word is a tipoff that this was when there still was primetime, before that stopped having a meaning after the rise of digital streaming platforms. It was still the crême de la crême of television, and when moved to the primetime slot, the show was opposite "Lost" - the hit ABC mystery drama about the survivors of a plane crash on a strange, magical island, which was one of the biggest pop cultural hits of the 2000's. Chris Hansen was a made man.
The glamorous Pattinson - from the romantic but culturally suspect starting point of his "Twilight" series fame - has reveled in sleazy roles - the villainous suitor Antinous in Nolan's Odyssey is just the latest example - but never got to play someone sleazier than Chris Hansen. The show "To Catch a Predator" itself is an arch predator, constantly creating predator-victims to prey on. As the emcee of this show, the feeling that Hansen is the ickiest of the ickiest grows on you as you watch the film.
As I watched this film a French phrase came to me: L'abîme appelle l'abîme. This comes from the Vulgate Bible, Abyssus abyssum invocat in voce cataractarum tuarum, which means "Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls." The sense in French is that an excess, a mistake, leads to even worse misfortunes. But the hypnotic word abîme, "abyss," says more. It suggests being sucked down lower and lower, the lowest you can go ("deep in your waterfalls"). This time the low point comes as a result of flying too high, which can happen. The "To Catch a Predator" team entraps a victim in an exalted position, a long-sought "whale," who kills himself, and with this destructive violence, the show is brought to an end. The whole function of "To Catch a Predator" has been to sink itself in evil to generate more evil - for show. If they'd had TV in Dante's time, he'd have found a special place in Purgatory for Chris Hansen and his program.
Very important in the film is the authoritative, manipulative producer Andie Bender (Merritt Wever), a man-powered woman who is manipulating everything, while Chris dives in as needed to exploit or to complete the process of capture, manipulation, and display of the predator-victim. The sleaziest team member, on the other hand, is Xavier Von Erck (Matthew Maher), ever present in the background working online, finding and cultivating successive victims.
A highly visible cog in the system, and the most sympathetic and pathetic cast member we see, is young Dan Plumb (Skyler Gisondo). He is among those used to entrap the predators, often young women playing younger boys, in his case impersonating a 13-year-old though he is 23. Gisondo, who was a child actor, has a raw, exposed-looking face, as if he's as innocent as the bait he's playing. What is sad is that Dan wants to become an actor. This is a very bad road to that goal, this fakery, this entrapment, which, whether or not it is illegal, is morally questionable - and, like so many "reality" TV shows - like "Cops" - was a very dirty place for us to be situating ourselves as a TV viewers. Chris tells Dan this is not acting. But there's a happy sequel: a year after he was in the show, Dan Plumb turns out to have logged enough hours as a performer, and he does receive his SAG-AFTRA card - becoming a professional actor, after all.
Primetime as a whole can tend to feel more like a simulation or an instructional film than a real movie. It has an ickiness all over it from which there is no avenue of escape. While the film received a lengthy ovation at its September 5 Venice premiere, it has not fared quite so well with critics since. Perhaps under its shallow but entertaining surface it may reveal lessons to teach us that will resonate. But so far its "abyss" seems mostly on the surface. Hansen's supposed messing around and his lack of contact with his wife and child hardly constitute character development.
Primetime, 110 mins., premiered at Venice Sept. 5, 2026, showing at some other festivals including BFI London. Released by A24 in US theaters Sept. 25, 2026. Metacritic rating: 67%.