Robert Pattinson‘s performance as To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen is earning strong reviews.
A24‘s Primetime, which premiered Saturday at the Venice Film Festival to a nearly eight-minute standing ovation, holds a 93 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. The film will be released in theaters Sept. 25.
Directed by Lance Oppenheim, Primetime follows Pattinson as Hansen, the former Dateline NBC host who became famous for confronting suspected child predators on camera through To Catch a Predator. The film also stars Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Phoebe Bridgers and Bokeem Woodbine.
Hansen, who initially questioned Hollywood’s motives by making the film, has since given Pattinson credit for the work he put into portraying him. “Obviously he has practiced imitating me, and while I think it’s overly dramatic, I think there is a pretty good imitation there in the trailer,” Hansen recently told Entertainment Tonight.
While recently speaking with Fox News’ Jesse Watters, Hansen also said that he did not attend a screening of Primetime, alleging, “Lawyers at A24 wanted me to sign away my rights to my name, image and brand, essentially, as well as any potential legal rights that would come out of the movie.”
Regardless, Pattinson responded to his public comments on Saturday in Venice, saying, “I hope he likes the movie.”
Critics have largely singled out Pattinson’s performance; see what they’re saying about the movie below.
The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney wrote, “Robert Pattinson is equal parts cracked and chilling as host Chris Hansen, portraying him as a ruthless ratings hunter with a grandiosity complex and a chip on his shoulder because he’s not Stone Phillips. … Not that Pattinson, who just keeps getting better, isn’t riveting to watch.”
“Oppenheim manages the actors with finesse, getting strong work especially from Pattinson, Gisondo, New York stage regular Maher and the always brilliant Wever,” he continued. “But although Primetime is entertaining in a sicko, silly sort of a way, it shows too little intellectual or psychological curiosity to displace Predators as the more serious study and might leave you wondering who and what this anti-date movie is for.”
The Playlist’s Marshall Shaffer praised Pattinson’s take on Hansen, calling it the “most locked-in performance of its kind since Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler.”
BBC’s Nicholas Barber also applauded the actor, writing, “His performance in Primetime is exaggerated and theatrical without ever being arch. He is completely immersed in the character’s strangeness. He plays Hansen as a slippery creep, sometimes buffoonish in his self-confidence and sometimes sinister, and sometimes on the verge of madness. The key could be that Pattinson never asks us to sympathise with the character. In fact, he seems happy for us to loathe him. But it’s a pleasure to watch him, anyway. This is the best performance yet from the most intriguing actor of his generation.”
Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri wrote, “Pattinson plays him like a man whose voice and demeanor could change at will, an ambitious morass of contradictions. It’s a stunning demonstration of the actor’s range, and watching the film you can’t imagine any other performer of his generation pulling it off.”
Another piece from the publication said Primetime might be Pattinson’s “first real shot at an Oscar.”
However, not all critics were enthusiastic about the film itself.
The Los Angeles Times’ Matt Brennan wrote, “Primetime isn’t a Chris Hansen hit piece. In fact, it’s so in love with its flawed protagonist that it can’t see he’s the least compelling character in the movie, an ambitious, arrogant, grasping, unscrupulous man we’ve met countless times before. Which may explain the film’s final bit of poetic license.”
