Lily James co-stars as a vulnerable employee pursued by shadowy forces in this smart, suspenseful thriller from David Mackenzie
By James Verniere/Boston Movie News
Another unburnished gem from eclectic, England-born filmmaker David Mackenzie of “Outlaw King” (2018) and “Hell or High Water” (2016), “Relay” captures the dark, paranoid spirit of our times. Written by Black List regular Justin Piasecki, the New York City-set film tells the story of a young woman named Sarah Grant (Lily James), who is desperate to return an incriminating report concerning a biotech company she previously worked for in order to get her life restarted and remove a darkly threatening cloud over her head. Sarah hires a covert operator (Riz Ahmed), who specializes in being the go-between between her and her previous employer, which has hired a black ops group headed by a hot-tempered and dogged killer named Dawson (a terrific Sam Worthington). The covert operator specializes in anonymity, disguises and a device that helps deaf people use the phone. Typing into the device, the operator uses a service known as Tri-State Relay to speak the words to Sarah that he types into the fax-like device. This keeps anyone tapping his employer’s phone from identifying him.
Yes, the setup is a bit complicated. But the result is a film recalling both Tony Gilroy’s memorable “Michael Clayton” (2007) and the deeply paranoid work of science-fiction icon Philip K. Dick.
Sarah lives in constant, unrelenting fear. She knows the corporation has people trailing her, ready at any moment to kidnap or even kill her. The only thing stopping them is the knowledge that she has arranged for a copy of the report to be released to the press and authorities. “Relay” is even dark enough to acknowledge that today, the press and authorities might be too intimidated to do anything about such corruption or crime. But who wants a publicity disaster like inducing cancer in consumers, right? Sarah, who is this modern-day film noir’s vulnerable and frightened femme fatale, lives alone and has just moved to a new space. But she sees a van with tinted windows parked across the street. In that van is Dawson and his cohorts Rosetti (Willa Fitzgerald of the marvelous “Strange Darling”), the possibly psychotic Ryan (Jared Abrahamson) and tech specialist Lee (Pun Bandhu).
The action begins with the vigilant operator, who does not even speak for the first 30 minutes, watching another client complete a deal with a different corporate evildoer. Notably, in a street scene, it appears that two big, tough-looking men might be about to close in on his already badly beaten-up client (Matthew Maher). But it is not what it looks like. The same might be said of “Relay.”
The film is set in a world full of menace, spooky strangers, a woman in deadly peril, and a New York City that is a smeary maze of dumpsters, clogged streets, and crowds of people who do not know you or one another. Unlike the thriving, colorful metropolis in Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest,” the NYC of “Relay” is a film noir web, where the innocent are helpless and waiting for the spider to strike.
The operator lives in a space surrounded by white brick walls. It’s a real person’s Fortress of Solitude. He carries the fax-like device wherever he goes. He has a secret hiding place near the East River beside train tracks, where he keeps files of incriminating material stored to safeguard previous clients. He has been told he is “parasitic scum.” He is intensely careful. The first time he speaks is at an AA meeting run by a police officer named Wash (Elsa Davis, TV’s “The Wire”). We see him use a library computer to research Sarah. He examines her history with her previous employer. He looks at photos of her on a dating service. In an evocation of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 classic “Vertigo,” the loner operator begins to fall in love with a mysterious woman he has never met.
James’ Sarah speaks in a nasal whine, an interesting choice. Ahmed, whose character’s name is Ash, brings canniness and wounded intensity to the operator, who has a wall of vinyl recordings, a truthful repository of his heart and soul. Another one of the film’s heroes is the U.S. Post Office, which is depicted as a safe and secure place run by very capable people. A scene in which Rosetti sweet-talks a postal worker is just more proof that Fitzgerald is a star-to-be. Yes, that is a tribute to William Friedkin’s 1971 New York City-set masterpiece “The French Connection.” The Brooklyn Bridge stands in for the Golden Gate. The ending invokes both the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and the motif known as death and the maiden. “Relay” deserves to be seen in theaters.
‘Relay’
Rating: R for language
Cast: Riz Ahmed, Lily James, Sam Worthington, Willa Fitzgerald
Director: David Mackenzie
Writer: Justin Piasecki
Running time: 1 hour, 52 minutes
Where to watch: In theaters
Grade: A-
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