Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: David Mackenzie
Starring: Riz Ahmed, Lily James, Sam Worthington, Willa Fitzgerald, Matthew Maher, Victor Garber
In movies of the '80s and '90s, characters were always using technology that wasn't actually accessible at the time. Now most of the gadgets that were merely fictional back then have become part of our daily lives. Sure, we're still waiting for hovercars, but we now have self-driving cars, voice-activated smart homes and AI that wants to kill us. But as technology has progressed at such an unimaginable rate, many of us find ourselves retreating to the simplicity of the past. Record sales, for example, are at their highest since the early '90s. There's also a mistrust of modern technology, particularly how everything from your phone to your toaster now requires you to be connected to the internet, thus raising concerns around privacy. Movies are beginning to reflect this desire to return to the past. In Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise's ace pilot has to commandeer a discontinued fighter jet to save the day. Similarly, Nope sees its protagonists turning to a century-old film camera when modern video technology proves incapable of the task of capturing an elusive alien on camera.
Director David Mackenzie's Relay is the latest movie that sees its protagonist use outdated tech to achieve their goals. In this case it's necessary for them to remain under the radar. One of the biggest arguments against a cashless society is that it gives too much power to bad actors. Think of the abusive husband who controls his wife's finances; without cash she would be unable to hide away money for an escape. Relay reminds us of how modern technology is deeply connected with the surveillance state and how exposed we are by our adoption of it for the sake of convenience.
Riz Ahmed plays Ash, a recovering alcoholic and former Wall Street trader who now makes a living acting as a "fixer" for employees of evil corporations seeking to cut deals in return for their silence regarding illegal and unethical practices. To protect himself, Ash never meets his clients face to face. Instead he uses a "relay service," a telephone system originally intended for use by the deaf. This sees him type his words on a custom device, which are then read by an operator at the relay service's offices and communicated to the person at the other end of the call. As all communications through the service are confidential and no records are kept, Ash's anonymity is guaranteed.
Ash's latest client is Sarah (Lily James), an employee at a company named Cybo Sementis. Sarah has in her possession documents that expose how the company is covering up the dangerous side effects of its genetically modified wheat. Fearing for her life, Sarah doesn't want to blow the whistle on Cybo Sementis but rather strike a deal that will guarantee her safety in return for handing back the documents.
Communicating through the relay service and the traditional postal system, Ash gives Sarah specific instructions to pull this off. She's provided with burner phones and is sent on what seems to be wild goose chases across various locations. All this is necessary as she's being tailed by a team of mercenaries headed by Dawson (Sam Worthington, an actor who makes for a bland leading man but who knocks it out of the park as the villain here).
At the heart of Relay's success is the cat and mouse game that develops between Ash and Dawson, as both men try to outwit each other like a modern day Richard Kimble and Deputy Gerrard. There's always something fascinating about watching a professional who is very good at their job, and Ash continually impresses with his well thought out strategy for evading detection. The relay service is something I've never seen depicted on screen before, and you can imagine a cartoon lightbulb flashing over screenwriter Justin Piasecki's head when he figured it would make for a great device in a corporate thriller. It's this process that makes Relay so riveting for so much of its running time.
Unfortunately Relay doesn't entirely trust its own process. This is a movie where the characters are secondary to the plot machinations, and we don't really need to know much about Ash and Sarah for us to become invested in their story. The movie attempts to manufacture some romantic tension between the pair, with Ash and Sarah flirting through the service as if they're Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in a '90s rom-com. While we might buy Ash being interested in Sarah, given he knows that she looks like Lily James, Sarah doesn't even know the gender of the person on the other end of the line, so it's difficult to buy her developing such feelings. Relay's low point is a scene that recalls Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone getting hot and bothered over the phone in '90s cheesefest The Specialist.
There's enough that's good about Relay to allow us to overlook such contrived Hollywood tackiness, but the movie almost collapses with a final act twist. Not only does the reveal make little sense if you think about it for more than two seconds, but the movie doesn't even have the courage to follow through on its implications in the manner of the classic conspiracy thrillers of the '70s. It's an insulting twist that plays like a trick on the audience, and it's a shame that Relay ends on such a sour note after doing such a good job of keeping us gripped up to that point.
Relay is in UK cinemas from October 31st.
