Relay

RELAY is a pulse pounding thriller that snares you in its opening scenes, pulling you deep into a complex series of twists & turns. At times, it feels like some of the classic, paranoid thrillers of the 1970's, like Alan J. Pakula's "The Parallax View" or Sidney Pollack's "Three Days of the Condor".

It's superbly directed by David Mackenzie, who also directed one of my favorite films of the past decade, 2016's "Hell or High Water". If you haven't see that film, stop reading and go watch it, right now. It's a stunner.

But while that film took place in the dusty outlands of the American Southwest, RELAY lives and breathes in the alleys and skyscrapers of New York City.

Riz Ahmed (Nightcrawler, Rogue One) stars as Ash, or at least that's one of his names. A fixer that seems to fly invisibly through Manhattan in a multitude of disguises, he serves as a go-between, trying to repair the lives of whistle blowers. He separates his life from his clients without exception. The opening scene is a taut encounter between Hoffman (Matthew Maher) a man just wanting to be left alone and McVie (Victor Garber) the wealthy exec who wants the corporate files that Hoffman has in his possession.

It's a fascinating, high stakes conversation in a diner, perfectly directed by Mackenzie and new screenwriter Justin Piasecki. It shows a restraint that I wish Piasecki showed later in the film, when he lets his story take one too many twists, nearly derailing everything that came before it.

Ash watches the dIner conversation, with Ahmed creating a fascinating character who drives the story and the intrigue with barely a spoken word the first half hour of the film.

The movie's title comes from the relay service that Ash uses for every clandestine encounter. It's a confidential service for the deaf, with him typing in everything he wants to say as his whistleblower clients or high powered corporate opponents respond.

It's clever and pays off again and again as a storytelling tool.

Ash's privacy is tested when he's contacted by Sarah (Lily James of "Baby Driver"). She's a senior officer at a chemical company in possession of a study that her recent employers want back. They are about to launch a new food additive that's far more dangerous than they want anyone to know.

We get to see Ash's operation from start to finish with growing admiration. His job this time out is a lot more complicated, as a trio of lethal agents are on Sarah's trail, watching her from outside her home and listening in on her communications.

The trio is dangerous and well acted by Sam Worthington (Avatar, Terminator Salvation), Willa Fitzgerald, hot off her killer performance in last year's "Strange Darling" and the hair trigger Jared Abrahamson.

Mackenzie turns what could have been a standard "client dropping off secret documents in a secret location two flights away" into a cat and mouse game that stretches over multiple airports, flights and the last post office left in an American airport.

Ahmed is rock solid throughout. We see just enough of his life outside his work to paint a lot of nuance on his actions. Sarah is lonely, afraid and closed off. Watching the realization between them both that they are very much alike is a fascinating and intriguing angle, slowly pulling you into their lives.

Another sequence in Times Square is a triumph of suspense and atmosphere.

It's trumped by the film's best sequence, a Hitchcockian attempt on Sarah's life at a classical music concert in Manhattan.

However, after that scene is when I began to feel the complicated puzzle created by Piasecki begin to fray under the weight of its own structure. A major plot twist happens that left me slowly shaking my head in disappointment. The more I thought about that twist, which I'm not divulging, the less sense it made.

The next day, writing this, it still makes no logical sense.

What a shame, this was moving its way swiftly and cleverly toward a spot as one of the best thrillers of the year.

Ahmed is terrific, Lily is good and Worthington is an absolute blast.

The music score by Tony Doogan is excellent and its pitch perfect action reminded me of the 1973 crime thriller classic "The Seven Ups" in several scenes, especially in those foot chases through a warehouse and train tracks.

It's too bad the baton was dropped in the final leg of the RELAY, sliding the film from a sure A to a B-. That being said, with Mackenzie at the helm, you're in for a hell of a ride, even if it does break down in the final act.