David Mackenzie’s Relay (2025) is a sly, sleek and silky thriller that lurches through the corridors of subterfuge and elaborate disguise. Identities are put through a churn, revealed as something starkly different than their earlier projection. The film becomes an elongated cat-and-mouse game, where stakes keep shifting and realisations seem to race as to who is actually complicit. In this web of moral evasion, double-crossing and triple-crossing, it grows tough and thorny how to nail down the actual perpetrator, the one pulling all the strings. Intentions are cloudy, obfuscated with ulterior motives. Who can tell the truth from the lie? This becomes the playground for an unrelenting, unwavering saga that springs surprise with cold nonchalance.
This isn’t to say the film isn’t entirely satisfying. Some twists and narrative misdirection fare better than others. You don’t step into such films with expectations of an even ride. There will be few rougher bumps than the rest. Mostly, Mackenzie executes things in an unfussy, austere manner, accentuating for better, sharper impact. Ahmed is a terrific lead, playing ambivalence and sincerity with a cheeky double bind but strains of predictability seep in his performance as the film shows its cards. The film turns more generic and bland as revelations accrue, deceptions gather force. Suddenly, the filmmaker’s confidence seems to peter out amidst the escalating events.
At what point...
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