# Primetime reviews: Robert Pattinson plays Chris Hansen in a film that splits critics

Published 2026-09-25T17:51:26Z

> Robert Pattinson plays TV host Chris Hansen in Lance Oppenheim's Primetime, a drama about To Catch a Predator that splits critics on his performance and on what the film is trying to say.

Robert Pattinson plays television host Chris Hansen in Primetime, the first narrative feature from documentary filmmaker Lance Oppenheim. The film goes behind the scenes of To Catch a Predator, the Dateline NBC segment that lured men into stings in front of the camera. Early reviews show critics sharply divided over what the film achieves.

The story follows Hansen as the show becomes a ratings draw and the push for a regular prime time slot takes hold. Merritt Wever plays the producer trying to keep the operation running, and Skyler Gisondo plays Dan, the young actor used as a decoy in the stings. Phoebe Bridgers and Matthew Maher complete the cast. The film is reportedly based on a 2007 magazine investigation into the rise and fall of the show.

Opinions on Pattinson swing widely. One review calls it the best work of his career and praises how he hides a vain, self-righteous streak under the bland manners of a network correspondent. Another finds his Hansen oily and insecure but stuck on a single note. A third says he shows a man who understands both how serious the work is and how much of a show surrounds it.

The look of the film also gets attention. Oppenheim works in grainy, dark images and keeps cutting between the movie and the TV show inside it. One critic describes a boxy frame and camcorder-style pictures that make the whole thing feel like a broadcast running a fever. Not everyone is won over. One review argues the film points at big ideas about media and voyeurism without landing any of them, and ends without saying who should pay when television goes too far.

The real Chris Hansen is reportedly unhappy with the project. He has called it fiction attached to his name and accused the filmmakers of behaving in an exploitative way. The original show reportedly ran on NBC from 2004 to 2008 and ended after one of its targets shot himself on camera.

Ratings so far range from two and a half to three and a half stars. The film leaves its central question open: is watching someone get exposed on television accountability, or just another form of entertainment?

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Source: https://clapnumber.com/news/primetime-reviews-robert-pattinson-plays-chris-hansen-in-a-film-that-splits-critics
Retrieved: 2026-09-25