Relay Review

Between the complications inherent in releasing movies during the COVID pandemic, lending his voice to animated features, and the limited theatrical runs enjoyed by most streaming studio fare, Relay marks Riz Ahmed’s return to the screen in a starring role. So it’s quite bold that for its first thirty minutes, we don’t hear his voice. A line delivered to an airline employee breaks the drought, and is followed by another fifteen minutes of silence, before he begins to speak more regularly. The effect is stunning. It forces us to spend every moment examining his face, scrutinizing his actions, and carefully reading his body language. And in that extended chunk of film, he provides an absolute masterclass, clearly displaying a deep reservoir of emotion as well as every single thought that flits through his mind. It’s almost a disappointment when he’s able to lean on speech once again, although his physical performance remains captivating.

Ahmed is not the only notable name in the film. His co-protagonist is Lily James as Sarah, a corporate research scientist and would-be whistleblower whose employer’s intimidation has her wanting her life back. Fearing retaliation and harassment even if she returns the pilfered documents, she employs the help of Ash (Ahmed), a fixer specializing in this sort of arrangement. This requires him retaining a copy of the incriminating files, as well as both her and her employer ponying up tens of thousands of dollars, so of course the company doesn’t go for it. Instead, they go to great lengths to disrupt Ash’s work and retrieve those files via a team of hired mercenaries, led by Sam Worthington and including Willa FIizgerald (as Dawson and Rosetti, respectively). The resulting cat and mouse game calls back to the great paranoid thrillers of the late 20th century, full of careful plans and clever misdirects and plenty of time in spent in the back of a surveillance van.

Along with its smarter than average plot, Relay‘s use of a relay service is a brilliant stroke, allowing Ash to communicate with his clients without the possibility of being traced or identified. Using a special keyboard, he types to his client, and an operator reads his messages over the phone, enabling real-time conversation. Not only that, but federal US law prevents the retention of conversation records for any period of time, providing an extra layer of security. It also allows for a neat, lovely moment midway through the film, when Ash calls Sarah while pretending to be the relay service, enabling their direct conversation for the first time, unbeknownst to her.

Additionally, it plays all the hits of the subgenre. There are package drop offs and forwarding addresses, long stakeouts, demands for money, physical threats, and lots of tailing their target in disguise (or at least a pulled down baseball cap). Ash uses some particularly neat little tactics to draw out the mercs, sending them on a wild goose that will compromise their identities long before they know a thing about him. The tension is thick throughout, aided by the magnificent score from rookie composer Tony Doogan. The weight of the situation is never undercut, but we get a couple small breaks and even victories so we can catch our breath. It’s remarkable how light your feel as you watch the mercenary’s cargo van slowly drive away, making you aware of just how engaging the film has been.

It keeps this up through a twisty series of events and a few improvisations, including an anxiety-inducing confrontation at a symphony hall. But it’s after this wonderfully heart-pumping scene that the screenplay starts go off the rails. Writer/director David Mackenzie seems to have been unsatisfied with his movie’s taut, relatively straightforward forebears, and ties the ending into a pretzel. The unexpected events lead to a finale consisting of successive big, loud set pieces, each one following plot beats you’ve seen many times before. They’re not all bad, especially when the filmmakers remember that since the previous ninety minutes were a cat and mouse game, they should keep that up in the final fifteen, albeit in another form. When the dust settles, everything that happened makes sense, but it feels like a completely different movie than what came before.

It’s difficult for a modern paranoid thriller with two clearly defined and bitterly opposed sides to come out as anything other than junky fun. The temptation to tip over into an action thriller is often too great, especially since they’ve already done away with an idea as fundamental as an unknown or nebulous adversary with undefined capabilities and reach e.g. The Conversation. But Relay comes within spitting distance of the year’s best films before its tumble, once again proving the difficulty and importance of crafting a satisfying ending. It demonstrates that Lily James is more than a love interest, proves that Sam Worthington can be a truly scary heavy, and reaffirms that Ahmed is deserving of so much more recognition than he’s received. As such, it slots nicely into the glut of unsung but worthy third-tier productions that have dominated the release calendar so far, providing some great viewing despite their deficiencies. Toss this one on in the background, and you just may find it stealing the entirety of your attention.