Relay
2024
***
Director: David Mackenzie
Cast: Riz Ahmed, Lily James, Sam Worthington, Willa Fitzgerald, Jared Abrahamson, Pun Bandhu, Eisa Davis, Matthew Maher, Seth Barrish, Victor Garber
Ash is a fixer who brokers deals between corrupt companies and their former employees who have damaging information. Nobody knows who he is or what he looks like, but he breaks his own strict professional rules for a desperate young woman. For the most part, this old-fashioned conspiracy thriller, based on a screenplay by Justin Piasecki, is smart, tense, and entertaining, though a bit repetitive. Ash communicates through an anonymous relay communication service designed for the deaf, an interesting detail that adds originality. However, Ash becomes increasingly stupid in the final third, and the whole thing ends in a silly gunfight.
