Relay | Dir: David Mackenzie | ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
It has been said that highly populated New York City can feel like the loneliest place in the world. Ash (Riz Ahmed) leads a very solitary life and thrives on being almost anonymous amongst the sea of people in the surveillance-saturated city.
Ash is an unofficial fixer who brokers lucrative payoffs between corrupt corporations and former employees who are in possession of damaging documents that could ruin the businesses. Businesses that have seemingly endless resources to silence anyone in possession of anything incriminating.
Clients contact Ash to be the intermediary when the intimidation becomes so extreme that they just want to give everything back. Retaining his anonymity is the priority for the middleman who has strict rules and is a master of disguise.
Ash uses a Relay System to communicate with clients on both sides. The Relay System is really for hearing-impaired people who use a teletypewriter to make phone calls. Callers are anonymous, calls are not recorded and no records are kept.
When Sarah (Lily James) contacts him about returning documents, she is being heavily surveilled and quite distressed. Isolated in an apartment, Sarah is desparate, and begins to engage Ash at a personal level in seductive late-night calls. And Ash breaks his rule of not getting close to the client.
As the surveillance team (lead by Sam Worthington and Willa Fitzgerald) keeps tabs on Sarah, Ash stalks around in the shadows keeping track of both Sarah and those who are following her every move.
The pacing is faultless and the paranoia mounts as the action speeds up before the imposed deadline. New York reveals its secret passageways and hidden spaces. It is a city full of locked doors, rat-runs between tall buildings and places to hide.
The stakes are incredibly high and the negotiation quickly becomes a race for survival where the ‘good guys’ face seemingly insurmountable odds. The film is a lesson in accepting what cannot be changed and having the courage to change what can be (from the AA Serenity Prayer).
Lezly Herbert
