Relay a nail-biter thiller with a nod to Hitchcock
Relay, about a reluctant whistleblower, is well written, has a creditable cast and a smart idea at its heart.
This year there seems to have been a lack of decent thrillers at the cinema. I don’t mean horror films, or comic book superheroes. Or indeed super-anything.
Just stories rooted in modern-day reality, with characters you can believe in and identify with, and – most important – a solid ending. Films in other words like Relay.
Relay has a smart idea at its heart – a way to outsmart digitally sophisticated villains, and stay one step ahead of them.
It uses a technique borrowed from the deaf community, who communicate by typing their answers to a relay call-centre, which then passes it on.
No digital footprint, nothing recorded, and no way to track the callers.It takes a little wrestling with, but once you get it you’re off on the ride.
And the ride starts with Sarah Grant, a would-be whistle-blower in a big pharmaceutical company, who gets cold feet.
Sarah is played by one of those hard-working actors who still remain this side of a household name.
Review: Relay
Lily James was launched on Downton Abbey, and since then has starred in Cinderella, Mamma Mia, Darkest Hour, Yesterday and dozens more. She even played Pamela Anderson once. She’s very good in this, by the way.
Sarah makes contact, via the relay service, with a secretive Robin Hood, dedicated to doing the right thing for a cut in any downstream profits.
He’s played by another actor who deserves more name recognition than he currently has - British-born Riz Ahmed..
By using the most primitive of communication devices - an old-fashioned typing machine that hooks up to a phone line - our hero, who may or may not be called Ash, manages to keep Sarah out of the hands of the ruthless hit squad, summoned by her former employers.
Lily James in Relay.
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Leading the squad is a chap we mostly see these days covered in digital blue paint – Sam Worthington of Avatar fame.
He’s the one who has to do deals over the phone to keep Sarah’s incriminating papers out of the hands of the police.
Relay is a creditable first script from one Justin Piasecki, but the safe pair of hands in the movie belong to Scottish director David McKenzie.
Best known for a modern western called Hell or High Water, McKenzie’s strength is staying one step ahead of us.
Relay is Hitchcock territory. Not jokey, Cary Grant comedy-thriller Hitchcock, but the edge of your seat, nail-biter variety.
Though McKenzie isn’t above the old Hitch trick of getting his characters to hide out at a concert, then hitting the fire alarm.
But just as our hero and heroine seem to have broken free of the baddies – even wondering if their feelings may be stronger than those of mere Whistleblower and Equalizer – look out for a switch or two.
And, for a change, switches that don’t insult our intelligence.
Relay does the business on just about every level but one. Good performances, a script based on something current, an admirable pace. It just falters a bit at the end.
And endings are crucial in thrillers – know where you’re going, then get out as soon as you get there.
As Hitchcock could have told them, don’t linger for another five minutes just because you want to fit in a cute, last scene. Relay didn’t need it.
Listen to Simon Morris review the latest films in At The Movies, available here or on Sundays at 1.30pm on RNZ National.
