The Reel Review
A man with a lucrative business protecting reluctant whistleblowers from retaliation from their corrupt corporations is forced to break his own rules about maintaining anonymity after he is hired by a frantic whistleblower who has a report that shows the biomedical engineering company where she worked is hiding a deadly cancer-causing food process from the public. Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal) and Lily James (Cinderella, Downton Abbey) star in this action/thriller.
Under the directorship of David Mackenzie (Hell or High Water), Relay is a smart, impressively well-crafted cloak and dagger thriller with a convincing Ahmed as our hero battling a group of corrupt corporate goons that include Sam Worthington (Horizon: An American Saga, Avatar) and Willa Fitzgerald (Regretting You, Strange Darling, Reacher). The film’s premise is a moral twist in itself. Ahmed’s character, with the use of a teletype machine used by deaf people, helps whistleblowers who have had a change of heart obtain huge payouts in exchange for their continued silence. So much for that whistleblowing!
The first hour and a half is taut and thrilling, as our hero repeatedly outsmarts his villainous adversaries, and in some cases, even on the fly. The twisty last act, however, is where the entertaining story starts to fall apart, as a quick deconstruction of the film’s earlier events just don’t quite add up. Regardless, Relay is an entertaining old-school thriller.
REEL FACTS
• The year after Riz Ahmed got nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for 2020’s Sound of Metal, he won an Oscar for Best Live Action Short for The Long Goodbye.
• The device Ahmed’s character uses in the film is a Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD), also known as a teletype. They are still widely used where internet connectivity is limited. The Americans with Disabilities Act prevents relay operators from disclosing any information about the calls.
• While major international airports in Canada and Europe have full-service post offices within airport secure areas, Pittsburgh is the only U.S. airport with a full-service post office past security. Several other U.S. airports have full-service post offices before going through the security checkpoint.
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