Film: Relay

Cast: Riz Ahmed, Lily James, Sam Worthington, Matthew Maher, Willa Fitzgerald

Director: David Mackenzie

Rating: 3 stars

Runtime: 112 min

David Mackenzie’s thriller ‘Relay’ uses surveillance tech as a main construct for rousing fear and paranoia. Riz Ahmed plays Ash/Tom, a recovering alcoholic, a fixer who brokers deals between whistle-blowers and corporations. He facilitates the return of stolen documents and other evidence of corporate malfeasance while maintaining his anonymity. His clients are expected to follow his stringent precautionary rules meticulously.

In the opening scene, we see Ash brokering a deal with Hoffman (Matthew Maher), a former employee of Optimal Pharmaceuticals, following which Hoffman, absconds to a safe house in Poughkeepsie. Hoffman had attempted to out the CEO on his own, but the corporation's intimidatory tactics had him running scared. That opening basically establishes the cat-and-mouse games being played.

Sarah (Lily James), a senior researcher, steals a hundred-page report that indicts her former employers, a biotech company, for creating a dangerous strain of insect-resistant weed. Sarah is tired of the intimidation imposed by a team of goons led by Sam Worthington and including Willa Fitzgerald and Jared Abrahamson. They are menacing. She has no option but to seek out Ash to protect herself. This is the main thread of ‘Relay’, where danger lurks in every corner as Ash works in the shadows to protect his clients from the roving eyes of the dangerous and powerful.