Written by Sam Clark 

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Completely original ideas and concepts are all but dead within cinema, but that is thankfully where the blacklist comes in. The blacklist in Hollywood is where the best unproduced scripts lie, waiting to see the light of day. Some do, and some do not (or ever will). Any genre could come from it, and it's usually the best of films whose origins reside there. Relay is one of many scripts that has been able to get the greenlight and make it out, and whilst there are ideas here and plenty of potential, I wish I felt more from the final product. 

David Mackenzie, a filmmaker whose previous work such as Starred Up and Hell or High Water has proven to pack one hell of a punch, directs from a debut script by Justin Piasecki. Riz Ahmed is Ash, he is a ''fixer'' who lives and works in New York, and he brokers and negotiates under the radar deals between whistle-blowers and corporations. People come to him to help them get out of sticky situations. It is rather tricky to explain the logistics of how things operate. In order to keep himself safe and his identity concealed, he uses a advanced typewriter-esque machine to conduct the business which is how he communicates with his clients. The client is must ring a number, which is picked up via a call center, and Ash types of the message which will then be ''relayed'' back to the client by the call center. One day, he is approached by Sarah Grant (Lily James), who is a scientist for a company who comes into possession of incriminating documents and evidence regarding one of their medical products. 

He agrees to help her return the evidence and therefore extricate herself, but soon events spiral into a cat and mouse chase. The two find themself pursued by Sam Worthington's surveillance team, under the jurisdiction of the company, who are determined to recover the files and neutralize any loose ends, by any means necessary. There is plenty of inspiration clearly on display here, the two most notable examples that spring to my mind being The Adjustment Bureau by way of The Conversation (or indeed any conspiracy thriller really). The film is not short of any ideas either and certainly knows how to entertain you and keep you on your toes.

There are two set pieces that take place which called to mind the airport sequence from Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning and an opera scene towards the end which is nothing short of nail-bitingly suspenseful. However the central issue at hand here is that this simply doesn't amount to anything memorable, and reminds you of better things you'd rather be spending your time with. There has also been times in the past in which I have seen a film on streaming and believed it should've been theatrically released instead, Relay is the opposite as I felt as though it had Amazon Prime written all over it. 

This must've been one of the easiest paydays and scripts to memorize for Ahmed as he spends most of the film typing away on a computer. Usually you run a risk doing something like that as it hard to make that interesting. But, it's very much to his credit that he's still able to make that watchable and entertaining. He is a very physically expressive performer and does not need to rely too heavily on dialogue which has always been a strength of his. I have to confess I didn't warm to Lily James as much as I wanted to, especially given how good she was in the biopic Swiped recently in which she played the CEO of Bumble Whitney Wolfe Hard. Relay is simply not as dramatic or as serious as it believes itself to be, and Sam Worthington and his crew are some of the most unengaging, conventional and box ticking cliche's and stereotypes I can recall seeing recently.

With most films like this one, you always (and I mean always) have the cops, detectives or government officials also hot on the trails, always one step behind the protagonists. Despite these characters being on the shadier and more corrupt side of dealings instead, we have seen their type far too many times before. It is a tangled web of not knowing where the story will go next, but I failed to find myself all that engaged or invested in any of it. There is a final rug pull that is one of the stupidest decisions I have seen a film do in a long time, and since I was already losing more and more patience , this was the final nail in the coffin and the last thing the film needed. 

At no point at all is this idea even vaguely alluded to, as had that been the case there would've been some reasoning behind it. This sadly gave the indication that neither the writer nor director knew where they were ultimately going, and just decided to throw something in there for dramatic effect. It also falls into the trap of just turning into an action film during the last moments which is always the laziest last resort. Given David Mackenzie's solid pedigree in the past, dust yourself off and try again is my advise. 

Relay is in cinemas now