Relay

Relay
Starring Riz Ahmed, Lily James, Sam Worthington, Willa Fitzgerald
Directed by David Mackenzie

Suspenseful movies only work if the suspense is there, where there's a sense of tension and dread at every turn, and the action is palpable and exciting. Without that, it's a wannabe suspense thriller lacking the suspense of the thrills, but still there's an audience for that - and that's oddly what "Relay" is. To me, it was a snoozefest from start to finish, with repetitive scenes that dragged on and on before reaching the twisty, wannabe intelligent conclusion, but for some reason many people love it.

Ash (Riz Ahmed) is a deal broker who helps whistleblowers survive the attacks of their wealthy former bosses. He is a ghost, someone no one knows, and communicates strictly through a talk-to-text relay service where he types in what he wants the operator to tell the person he's communicating with, and vice versa. Sarah Grant (Lily James) is a whistleblower fearing for her safety when she sees a van with Dawson (Sam Worthington), Rosetti (Willa Fitzgerald), and others hiding inside threatening her not to come forward with information she has pertaining to her former job, and finds Ash to turn to for help. As they communicate through the relay service, Ash begins developing feelings for Sarah, and vice versa, threatening both of their lives.

"Relay" is one of those movies that wants to be smarter than it is, but instead it's a nearly-two hour slog where the most exciting moments is communications between Ash and Sarah through the relay program where the mediator is trying to act professional when they're talking about protection, money, and death threats. This happens numerous times in the movie, and could've been cut in half to save time and not make it as boring, but alas that's not the case.

It's hard to talk about this movie because I saw it a few days ago and already forgot most of what happened, but then there's the twist ending that pretty much gets rid of any logic the movie tries to tell, but is done so in a way to make audiences gasp in shock (to their credit, it did happen in our theater, but they were mostly older people who clearly don't watch too many movies). Riz Ahmed's Ash is stoic, calculated and longing for love, and Lily James' Sarah is frightened, stupid (like really, really stupid), and also looking for love. Then there's the bumbling idiots targeting her, who literally live in a big van that's as obvious as Godzilla that don't offer much in the ways of threats. All in all, this is a huge misfire that wastes the talent of the actors and insults the audiences' intelligence. 

The Score: D-