“Prime Time,” initially, opens with a beguiling premise. It’s New Year’s Eve in Poland, and the world is mere hours from the year 2000, a new millennium. In a television station, amidst the glamorous bystanders adorned in fur coats and evening fineries, is an apprehensive Sebastian (Bartosz Bielenia). A kid dressed in an oversized jacket and baseball cap concerned with his desperate mission. That night Mira (Magdalena Poplawska), a primadonna television host, is auctioning off prizes like a spanking new car to viewers whilst people celebrate worldwide.
READ MORE: The 25 Most Anticipated 2021 Sundance Film Festival Premieres
Armed with a handgun, Sebastian storms the television station, takes Mira and an unsuspecting security guard Grzegorz (Andrzej Klak) hostage, and demands to broadcast a message live to the nation. A thrilling standoff between a troubled Sebastian and the police ensues. And how the night will end is anyone’s guess. Jakub Piatek’s “Prime Time” might begin intensely, but barring Bielenia’s captivating central performance, the hostage flick peters into flat champagne.
READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2021
Based on its premise, “Prime Time” will garner copious comparisons to Sidney Lumet’s “Dog Day Afternoon” and “Network.” And if the film possessed even a tenth of the ability to translate the era’s political unrest, especially the one Piatek is so keen on traversing, into the unfolding standoff, it would be a great film. But Piatek grazes past such introspection. His camera pans across the station’s studio monitors to show a deluge of televised content covering bourgeoisie excess, high schoolers caught in a general malaise, and state-run propaganda. By spotlighting the monitors, Piatek tries to interlock Sebastian’s hopelessness to his country’s apathy toward a younger generation. Unfortunately, Piatek and his co-writer Lukasz Czapski, whether through dialogue or visuals, never glue the two components together.
Piatek also has little to say about the police and television station. Unlike “Dog Day Afternoon,” where the authorities represent the proverbial man tightening the screws on everyday folks, especially the wayward younger generation, the cops like Dowódca (Dobromir Dymecki) in “Prime Time” are bumbling, and fairly benign. At one point, for instance, they bring Sebastian’s estranged father to negotiate. But the pair’s icy relationship, one born of psychological abuse, backfires. It’s the type of scene, one where we’re allowed to peel back Sebastian, that “Prime Time” sorely lacks. Rather the authorities, who are barely explored, play as set pieces to ratchet the film’s modicum of intrigue.
The same criticism can also apply to the television station. The station manager, Lena (Monika Frajczyk), isn’t Faye Dunaway craving ratings off the back of tragedy. She votes against broadcasting for fear of Sebastian’s unpredictability. While Piatek ever so slightly makes a play at examining Mira’s celebrity privilege, there’s a scene where authorities must choose between saving the resplendent but unlikable Mira and the lonesome Grzegorz; the attempt is only a dip into classist waters.
The only person holding “Prime Time” together is Bartosz Bielenia. He takes the threadbare Sebastian, who’s more mystery than character, and imbues the troubled youngster with a charm, worry, and depth that feels antithetical to the shallow script. Though Sebastian carries with him the crumpled pages of his message, checking the notes every few minutes for clarity, their words are of little importance. Rather Piatek treats Sebastian as a symbol for the power of the messenger, not the message. In colloquial terms, it’s a cop-out. Like Sebastian, Piatek is unprepared to speak aloud the “why” to this ordeal. Rather he’s solely buying time, and gradually losing our interest. Hurdling viewers to an ending that offers no logical satisfaction, and even less emotional. Piatek’s “Prime Time” is more of a premise than a fully fleshed out film. A premise, barring some isolated stressful highlights, that’s too similar to others before it, and too pointless to deliver its necessary bite. [C-]
Follow along for all of our coverage from the 2021 Sundance Film Festival here.