Relay (2025)

David Mackenzie's Relay might well be one of the most frustrating films I've seen in a long time- and there's many reasons for this. Mackenzie is a very fine director, having helmed the terrific Starred Up (2013) and Hell or High Water- one of the best films of 2016.

With Relay, he offers up a truly fascinating concept. Riz Ahmed, who is on wonderfully minimalist form, is a 'fixer', who secretly brokers deals between corrupt corporations- and those who expose them- in this case a whistleblower, Sarah, played by Lily James. Sarah has been targeted by her former employees, Cybo Sementis Reseach Institutes after she stole documents that prove they've been covering up side effects of their genetically modified wheat; and initially planned to go public with the revelations. After the harassment she has encountered, forcing her to move house, she changes her mind and simply wants to hand the documents back in exchange for her safety, and a quiet life.

For a big fee, Ahmed's fixer will broker the return of the incriminating evidence while keeping back a copy for insurance purposes. To make contact with everyone, he uses a 'relay' phone service, which is used by deaf and speech-impaired people using operators who read aloud typewritten prompts and keep no records of what is said- a prime set up for illegal activity.

The set up is intriguing, and the first forty minutes or so are up there with the best and most gripping cinema you'll see this year. There's a Jason Bourne style sequence at an airport that is utterly encapsulating and brilliantly performed, as Sam Worthington and his colleagues (who are working for the CEO of Cybo Sementis) track Sarah all over the airport in a bid to grab the documents from her, all the while themselves being followed by Ahmed's fixer, who uses a burner phone to tell Sarah exactly what to do.

We're fascinated to see where it goes- and then there's a brief flicker that suggests there might be a romantic spark between the fixer and Sarah, both lonely individuals with problems in their past. No, please, I thought to myself- that can't be where it's going because it would kill this excellent set-up stone dead.

Well, it does go there. And it rips the momentum away from Relay like a kick to the knackers, then whilst you're slowly recovering, kicks you again. The final third of the film does offer an explanation for why the film goes down that route, and provides some sort of clarity- but the middle section is so frustrating I was past caring; it doesn't help that some of the individual moments towards the end become irritating in their stupidity.

The problem the film has is that the way it finishes, narratively, is kind of fine- but what makes it especially annoying is that the middle section or reasoning behind what was going on feels completely unnecessary. Relay could end the way it does without any of the nonsense that unfurls forty odd minutes in.

Mackenzie fools you into thinking you're watching a superb thriller, and you put your trust in that thought because you know who's behind the camera. Which makes the narrative betrayal hit all the more; then even more when you understand that it didn't need to happen for the ending to unfurl the way it does. Why didn't you just keep it a full blown thriller David?

The concept is brilliant, the first third is fantastic, but Relay is derailed so badly that by the time you accept that it might have been OK in the end, the damage has been well and truly done. For God sake David. 6.0/10