Movie Review: Relay

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B+

A tense and gripping thriller. 

For the most part, this thriller about a man who protects whistle blowers who are in danger is very much in the vein of classic old-school thrillers. There are hardly any action scenes until the last act. Instead, this film builds tension through its story and characters. For most of the film, the story is very straightforward and that is what makes it work. We like these characters and when the danger they are in is effectively built up little by little. Because of this gradual building of tension, it truly hooks you for the majority of the runtime. By the time the action sequences actually come, they are much more tense and exciting then they would have been otherwise. It also helps that the characters are very easy to relate to. For the man who is protecting the woman in danger, we see learn that he is a recovering acholic. To see him struggle to keep away from this addiction as things get tense only makes him feel more real and human to us. This part could have been left out but it adds a lot to the drama and makes the character more real to us. The performances from Riz Ahmed and Lily James are truly wonderful and make us feel fully gripped even during the most dialogue heavy scenes. The villains of this movie are also excellent, creating just the right amount of danger and tension. 

The one thing that keeps this movie from getting an "A" is a huge plot twist towards the end. Unfortunately, when it comes to modern thrillers the filmmakers often feel like there must be some major plot twist that completely changes how we view everything that came before. While this can sometimes work quite well, in most cases it feels completely unnecessary. That is definitely true here, where the twist feels like it exists to simply to shock rather than because it is a good ending for this story. It is shocking but it doesn't make a lot of sense and it doesn't make the story any better. However this twist happened so late in the movie, that it did not even come close to ruining what was otherwise a great movie. 

Despite a very weak ending, this is a gripping and wonderful thriller.