David Mackenzie’s “Relay” opens with a company employee being assured by a suit-and-tie govt that he might be secure and that, after an alternate of data and veiled threats, it is going to be, hopefully, the final time the 2 will ever see one another.
The intermediary of this transaction, a “fixer” named Tom (Riz Ahmed), isn’t even current in the course of the interplay. His affect and help on this tense, doubtlessly harmful one-on-one isn’t simply important, it’s his experience.
Tom is the unseen however very important ingredient that retains whistleblowers and harmless victims secure when coping with highly effective firms that may make any downside or troublemaker disappear.
When he permits himself to exit in broad daylight, Tom attends rehab and bonds together with his sponsor. In any other case, his work as a “fixer,” which he dreads however excels at, is all the time pulling him again.
His newest project: a employee named Sarah (Lily James) holds very important data and desires Tom’s safety whereas she takes on a company so highly effective, they’ve despatched a crew of hitmen (whose lethal chief is performed by Sam Worthington) out to cease her at any price.
Tom and Sarah talk by a phone relay service, the place somebody nameless on one finish of the telephone permits them to speak. A lot of the movie consists of telephone calls by a relay service, visits to airports and particularly the put up workplace.
It’s as thrilling because it sounds.
I get pleasure from John le Carre thrillers, significantly “The Russia Home” (each the 1989 novel and the magnificent 1990 movie adaptation) and don’t want cloak and dagger thrillers to be reliant on motion sequences. Nevertheless, “Relay” takes it in such a pared-down route, it performs like a deconstructed cheeseburger, the sort that arrives on a shiny plate as a pink floor chuck rolled in a ball, subsequent to a skinny slice of cheese and Ritz crackers.
Does that sound unsatisfying? Precisely.
Riz Ahmed and Lily James increase the stakes in “the extreme summer time thriller we’ve been ready for” (@thedailybeast) with RELAY. Now taking part in solely in theaters! #RelayMovie pic.twitter.com/aO5LJjBAWK
— Bleecker Road (@bleeckerstfilms) August 21, 2025
Right here’s one other approach to have a look at “Relay,” which avoids cranking up the amount till the previous few minutes and simmers on the mildest stage doable. Why energize your spy thriller with chases, shoot outs, automobile crashes, intercourse scenes and excessive stakes poker video games?
As a substitute, how about depicting your hero having lengthy typing periods, sitting in an airport terminal, considering to himself and going to UPS? In reality, there’s a scene the place the villain asks a UPS employee how lengthy it could take to get a bundle delivered, then asks to verify if a bundle arrived and the employee helpfully informs her that, sorry, it hasn’t arrived but.
I’m not kidding, this actually occurs in “Relay.”
James is superb and offers the most effective efficiency, whereas Ahmed’s appreciable depth isn’t completely well-suited for an element that requires him to be a literal and figurative shut-in. Worthington’s equally underwhelming “Man on a Ledge” (2012) means that, when he’s not in Pandora, the proficient actor ought to search out higher scripts which can be price his time.
I’m reminded of a film evaluate I wrote many years in the past for my school paper on “The Saint” (1997), which I discovered uneventful and disappointing, regardless of how dynamic Val Kilmer was within the lead. A pal of mine acknowledged that I used to be clearly evaluating the movie to a 007 thriller and failed to understand that the lower-key spying of Simon Templer isn’t on the babes and mayhem stage of a typical James Bond journey.
A good statement. Nevertheless, the comparatively reserved mayhem of “The Saint” performs like a “Quick and Livid” sequel when in comparison with “Relay’s” slow-going plot beats.
Mackenzie’s “Hell or Excessive Water” (2016), his modern western starring Jeff Bridges and Chris Pine, is an superior achievement and the most effective movies of its 12 months. The eagerness exuded from that film, in entrance of and behind the digital camera, is nowhere to be present in his newest effort.
Very late within the going, “Relay” drops an enormous whammy of a plot twist however, as a substitute of belatedly turbo-charging this, it undermines the one factor concerning the film that basically labored and made us care. The third act consists of subpar chase and shoot scenes, the place nobody can hit their targets with a bullet, regardless of being just a few ft away.
The motion isn’t simply poorly staged, it’s devoid of suspense, pleasure and unusually simply as mediocre as every little thing else right here.
“Relay” is the sort of film you watch on a flight, appreciating the distraction it supplies, solely to neglect it the second you deboard the airplane.
One and a Half stars