Relay – Review

Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 51 minutes, Director – David Mackenzie

A New York City fixer (Riz Ahmed) finds himself caught between parties in a chase for details when his client (Lily James) tries to hand back documents proving a major company cover-up.

I’ve long referred to Riz Ahmed as one of the best actors currently working. Relay is proof that he doesn’t even have to speak to be utterly chameleonic. Much of his performance as a New York broker/ fixer, helping those who have information of cover-ups but have decided against releasing it, is silent yet you can read exactly what’s going through his mind as he pieces together and executes each stage of his plan. Especially as things start to go off track and he needs to think in the moment, something which appears to rarely have to happen for him.

The client in the case of Relay is Lily James’ Sarah. Having taken a report from her former employer, Cybo Sementis, proving possible deadly issues with modified crops they’ve been working on she wishes to not whistleblow and uses Ahmed’s anonymous character – the pair are kept separate for much of the run-time, communicating via a telephone relay service for the deaf – to give them back before the team sent to stop her releasing them (led by Sam Worthington) catch up.

For much of the run-time there’s an intricate and exciting nature to the dialled-back action, largely based around Worthington and co trying to track James in various locations whilst Ahmed’s plan comes together (with him often appearing in a number of enjoyable disguises). As multiple parties almost converge at multiple points there’s a feeling that the control will easily shatter at any moment – especially in crowded public spaces such as an airport or Times Square. Tension helps to ease along the pacey nature of the run-time whilst separated by the communication between the two leads, still forming some form of connection and relationship despite never properly directly communicating.

There’s an air of a stripped-back paranoid thriller, yet one where you know full well that someone is constantly on your tail – especially with the fact that we see both their perspective and know their van is sat outside Sarah’s apartment building, with a prime view of her window. It’s a shame, then, that a key direction the third act takes feels so lazy, emphasised by the fact that the film appears to try to play it off as far more clever than it actually is. There’s still a thrill to be found in the events that follow, but just with a slightly tamer effect after the dampener that has been put on what has come beforehand. Where the tension that comes through still comes from is the continued reminders of how close characters are and Ahmed’s performance as his character has to think on his feet more quickly, and upfront, than he has before.

While there’s something of a dampener to the laziness of a third act decision much of Relay is an exciting, well-executed thriller of intricate plans that feel as if they could go wrong at any moment with the cat-and-mouse lens of the tension throughout.