by Cain Noble-Davies
Worth: $15.99
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Riz Ahmed, Lily James, Sam Worthington
Intro:
… a nervy and slyly compassionate thriller that deals in thorny subject matter with remarkable salience.
Relay, the latest film from eclectic Scotsman Davd Mackenzie (Hell Or High Water, Starred Up) is a throwback to a different era of thriller cinema. Its snappy and well-structured script from newly minted scribe Justin Piasecki pulls from modern anxieties about corporate corruption and the prevalent mistreatment of whistleblowers as readily as films like Marathon Man and The Conversation pulled from the post-Watergate socio-political climate of the ‘70s, and generates a similar sensation of tangible (and justified) paranoia about who may be watching or listening in at any given moment.
While Mackenzie’s direction and DP Giles Nuttgens’ nerve-riddled cinematography maintain the tense atmosphere, it’s the three central stars who keep it concrete, exciting, and even a bit funny at times. Lily James as would-be whistleblower Sarah holds her own in conveying the agony of constantly looking over her own shoulder, even when she’s (ostensibly) doing what her former bosses would prefer and not unveil sensitive information to the public. Sam Worthington as hired goon Dawson makes for one of his better performances, as his growing anger at the titular telecommunication relay service is both intimidating and rather telling of how this service designed for (and initially by) Deaf citizens can be interpreted by the abled consensus.
And then there’s Riz Ahmed as ‘Tom’, the shadowy broker attempting to negotiate a deal between these two parties. His character’s strict adherence to his own rulebook and social distance has shades of Ryan Gosling in Drive, and as the film carries on, Ahmed’s performance brings out the most from his reasons for why he does what he does.
But ultimately, even as the film extensively shows the layered clandestine communication system that Tom conducts his business through, the film itself isn’t really about whistleblowers or fighting corruption. Rather, it’s a character piece about Tom and, in a broader sense, the effects of social estrangement. The service he provides, assisting those who would rather be paid-off than deal with the intricacies of whistleblowing in its entirety, is treated with a similar moral greyness as Mackenzie showed towards bank robbery in Hell Or High Water. It never loses sight of the good that can come out of it, but it also doesn’t throw shade at those who can’t deal with the repercussions. It understands that socialising, even at the baseline, can be terrifying, let alone when people are actually gunning for your head.
From there, it peers deep into Tom’s reasonings and neuroses, and while the story goes to odd lengths in order to reinforce his character arc (the third act asks quite a bit of the audience’s suspension of disbelief compared to what precedes it), it gradually chips away at his self-imposed social shell to reveal someone carrying a lot of baggage but also a lot of empathy for those who reach out to him, and Sarah especially. He’s like an extrapolation of someone willing to be an alibi for a friend who just can’t deal with any social functions on that day, offering help to those who may be making a mistake but from a place of understanding rather than condemnation. He’s the human core that keeps the film’s focus steady.
Relay is a nervy and slyly compassionate thriller that deals in thorny subject matter with remarkable salience. The central trio of Ahmed, James, and Worthington add a lot to the picture just through their performances, and in the film’s larger context, the cat-and-mouse chicanery between them is both slickly entertaining and emotionally impactful. It’s a film about what it truly means to speak out, whether it’s about malfeasance in the corporate sector, or just admitting what’s in your heart.
