What I liked most about Relay is how it starts off so sharply, quietly, and suspensefully… mixing classic paranoia with modern tech, nails the uneasy balance between silence and threat.
Riz Ahmed is excellent: almost withdrawn, communicating more in shadows and glances than words, and when his character does speak, it feels earned. Lily James holds her own as the whistleblower under fire, bringing urgency to the stakes though she never quite outshines the central mystery.
Early on, the movie strikes with intelligence: the relay system as a shield, corporate malfeasance hidden under glossy PR, someone watching someone, tension in every message. The direction, cinematography, sound – each boosts that uneasy, creeping dread. Scenes feel atmospheric.
And yet, once the last 20-25 minutes roll around, the film leans into familiar territory: plot twists you see coming, action beats that swap subtlety for confrontation, moral clarity where more ambiguity would have been more interesting. It doesn’t ruin what came before, but it does flatten the edges of the film’s promise.
Still, Relay is well made, tense, and well acted. It may not reach greatness, but it earns its watch. 7.5/10.
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