I’m not crazy about director David Mackenzie’s 2016 “Hell or High Water”. It’s an alright but not powerhouse crime drama. But it was a rare August release that spoke to all of the major awards season groups, earning Oscar nominations for star Jeff Bridges and writer Taylor Sheridan (who would go on to “Yellowstone”), as well as in the Film Editing and Best Picture categories.
Mackenzie presents another cat and mouse game with his latest thriller “Relay”. It stars Oscar winner Riz Ahmed (who deserved a second win for his incredible performance in “Sound of Metal”) as Ash, a fixer in NYC who anonymously helps clients accomplish their goals through the Tri-State Relay Service. Sarah (played by Lily James) is looking to get out of a predicament involving a company she used to work for, or she’ll go public with some damning information.
The way Ash and Sarah communicate with each other is part of the hook of “Relay” — and enough to keep you interested as the stakes get higher. There are some compelling chases and well-staged sequences in the first half at various locations, including Post Offices, as bad guy Dawson (Sam Worthington) and his crew try to put a wrinkle in Sarah and Ash’s plans.
However, as the second half gets underway, some abrupt plot twists occur. I began to question whether “Relay” was as structurally precise as it thinks it is. There are some “inner reflection” subplots that drag the momentum down a bit and, in the end, feel unnecessary. Cutting them could’ve made the runtime and overall experience tighter.
And then we get to the third act, in particular the final 15-20 minutes. This is when “Relay” goes off the rails and gets very messy. It’s a cheesy, unpleasant conclusion to what was a solid movie up to that point. I don’t know why Mackenzie and writer Justin Piasecki chose to do what they did, but it’s a bummer — and may have been why Bleecker Street buried this at the end of the summer.
LCJ GRADE: C
Running Time: 112 min.