It’s 2006. 9 PM rolls around and you sit down to catch the latest episode of To Catch a Predator. I was not around for this point in history, but I can imagine how it felt watching this type of content for the first time. Something fascinating and enjoyable, not overtly harmful at all because after all these are the people that are putting our kids in danger, right? Flash forward to 2026 where people are catching predators all over the place and posting on every type of social media. They meet these guys in a public place and record themselves beating the living hell out of them. This makes for an interesting time for this movie to be released. I’ve already seen a lot of people in the online discourse complaining about how this movie is quote on quote “defending pedophiles”, and I can tell you if you see someone say that they have not seen the movie. It is not doing so at all. What this film is doing though, is throwing a bunch of interesting ideas at the wall (all surrounding Chris Hansen), in a largely style over substance matter that fails to nail down a consistent coherent message.
While I was not blown away by this movie and am lower on it then a ton of people there is some praise to be had. Most obviously, Robert Pattinson is an absolute joy to watch in this. The voice, the mannerisms, the absurdity, and the freakiness, which Pattinson seems to thrive off in all his works, make this a truly unique and memorable performance. Skyler Gisondo, who has had brief moments in other great films such as Licorice Pizza, makes the most out of his co-lead role, playing ‘Decoy Dan’. These two actors have a great 1-2 punch as Pattinson plays the egotistical maniac, and Gisondo keeps things grounded playing the young aspiring actor who is manipulated and ruined by Pattinsons antics. The rest of the cast does well here too but no other standouts to come bragging home about. The visual style here is to be praised as well. Lance Oppenheim’s unique flare works perfectly for the type of story he is telling here. That story though, is where things start to fall apart for me.
I want to start by saying that this film does bring up a lot of interesting ideas. What is justice? Should justice be used as entertainment? Should we be a part of watching this type of entertainment? Where is the line on what should be entertainment and what should not be? None of these questions are as prevalent in the film as they should be. Most of Oppenheim’s version of Hansen is just portrayed as an absolute freak. Yes, he was most likely obsessed with ratings and a very egotistical persona. But we know that already! Slight spoiler alert ahead – one of the last lines of dialog in this movie is one of Hansen’s notorious phrases “What would happen if I wasn’t here”. This is exactly what this movie should have been – an exploration of the cultural phenomena of this tv show and the impact it had, and how it changed an entire landscape of entertainment up until this day. Instead, it plays as a weird hit piece on Chirs Hansen, that unrealistically portrays him as something barely even resembling a human being.