23 August,2025 08:08 PM IST | Mumbai | Johnson Thomas
Relay Movie review
David Mackenzie's thriller âRelay' uses surveillance tech as a main construct for rousing fear and paranoia. Riz Ahmed plays Ash/Tom, a recovering alcoholic, a fixer who brokers deals between whistle-blowers and corporations. He facilitates the return of stolen documents and other evidence of corporate malfeasance while maintaining his anonymity. His clients are expected to follow his stringent precautionary rules meticulously.
In the opening scene, we see Ash brokering a deal with Hoffman (Matthew Maher), a former employee of Optimal Pharmaceuticals, following which Hoffman, absconds to a safe house in Poughkeepsie. Hoffman had attempted to out the CEO on his own, but the corporation's intimidatory tactics had him running scared. That opening basically establishes the cat-and-mouse games being played.
Sarah (Lily James), a senior researcher, steals a hundred-page report that indicts her former employers, a biotech company, for creating a dangerous strain of insect-resistant weed. Sarah is tired of the intimidation imposed by a team of goons led by Sam Worthington and including Willa Fitzgerald and Jared Abrahamson. They are menacing. She has no option but to seek out Ash to protect herself. This is the main thread of âRelay', where danger lurks in every corner as Ash works in the shadows to protect his clients from the roving eyes of the dangerous and powerful.
Relay is not the typical action thriller with conventional high-speed chases and violent action. In this film the violence is largely suggestive yet the threat looms large and the tension is cutting-edge. The narrative plays the old-fashioned way, using less familiar landscapes in New York in it's cloak-and-dagger espionage-like act. The pace is brisk and the mystery is inveigling. Justin Piasecki's script takes us through the entire process of completing a job. We get to know the rigors of how Ash stays anonymous with an intensity that is heart-stopping. Ash, a brown man in a post-9/11 New York, is so innocuous that he hides in plain sight. The costume changes help him fade into the crowd.
âRelay' as the title suggests, uses the process of transfer itself as a tool to harness thrills. Mackenzie makes full use of message relays, burner phones, codewords and the bureaucracy of the post office to construct an atmosphere of hostility and suggestive aggression. We see how Ash keeps his distance - never meeting clients. We also get glimpses of his spartan home, secret office and his surveillance technique.
Ahmed excels in this role, which requires his character to hide in plain sight while communicating a range of emotions. Lily James and Sam Worthington provide solid support.
While the film is gritty and gripping, there are brief moments of slag that intertwine the narrative. Ash, who scrupulously keeps himself apart and aloof, suddenly becomes trusting, going against the underlying nature of his character. The developing closeness between Ash and Sarah is what causes the rift in tension. It's a turn that takes away some of the edge from this experience. In fact the end-play deflates the buildup of paranoia that enveloped this experience till then. This is a slow-burn, high-concept thriller that loses steam towards the end.
