Riz Ahmed plays Ash, a fixer who specialises in brokering lucrative payoffs between corrupt corporations and the individuals who threaten to ruin them if they become whistle blowers. He keeps his identity a secret through careful planning and following a defined set of rules. But when a message arrives one day from a potential client, Sarah, (Lily James), the rules may have to change.
Director David MacKenzie made the brilliant Hell or High Water a decade ago, and Relay is almost at good as that. With writer Justin Piasecki he manages to wring out terrific levels of suspense from the detailed mechanics of Ash’s methods of protecting his clients. The highlight is probably an elaborate cat-and-mouse as Sarah tries to evade her pursuers in an airport but that is one of many such brilliant sequences.
I suppose I should have seen the biggest twist coming, but it, instead, took me by surprise. The last 15 to 20 minutes is the only time that the movie moved into standard thriller mode, but what preceded that was so good, I was happy to go along with it.
Ahmed is a wonderful actor who conveys so much through long periods when his character does not speak and I have never seen James this good. There is also a quality supporting cast including Sam Worthington and Willa Fitzgerald as two of the people trying to thwart Sarah.
With Tony Doogan’s score helping to propel the action, this is one of the year’s best thrillers.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10