Film Review — Relay

Sometimes, there is nothing more frustrating than two-thirds of a good film that falls apart in the final third. I’d always rather it were the other way around. For example, the opening of the recent One Battle After Another is a bit on the choppy side. It took me until after the first act to settle into the drama, but I emerged elated by the end. With Relay, a thriller from Hell or High Water (2016) director David Mackenzie, that situation is reversed. Although instantly gripped, with the film holding my interest throughout, the narrative collapsed in the climax.

That’s a shame, as this is, for the most part, tense and compelling. The plot concerns a fixer, Ash (Riz Ahmed), who mediates between whistleblowers and the corporations they threaten to expose. To maintain anonymity, he uses the Tri-State Relay Service, a system for deaf people wherein both sides of a call are relayed by an intermediary. By law, none of these calls get recorded or logged, which makes them an invaluable resource for Ash.

His most recent client, Sarah Grant (Lily James), worked for Cybo Sementis Research Institutes, who wish to cover up a report indicating their genetically modified wheat will have…