Sarah Grant (Lily James) is in an airport, getting a call from a burner phone from someone ‘John’ (Riz Ahmed). She’s there because she wants to be a whistleblower, walks that back, but her ex-company still harasses her. ‘John’ is a broker between whistleblowers and corporations, able to do his job while recovering from alcoholism. He’s a David to equally formidable Goliaths who hire mercenaries (Sam Worthington, Willa Fitzgerald) who use every trick to win. ‘John’ and Sarah technically only have a business partnership, but both are lonely, forging what seems like a romance. A lot of things come into play here, including the titular relay service all parties use for their communication.

David Mackenzie’s new movie serves as a metanarrative where viewers watch people watch whistleblowers – it’s an emotionally elastic experience. Sarah moves into a condo and immediately she notices a van at street parking, and we feel every bit of her fear. To even that out, ‘John’ watches both Sarah and the van, which comforts us viewers more than Sarah, I guess. The relay service is a throwback, using an analog technology for ‘John’ and Sarah’s epistolary relationship. And as ‘John’ watches everyone, it establishes a cat and mouse dynamic amongst all the parties involved in this game. There are genre expectations to this dynamic, but there’s enough risk in Relay – anything can happen here.

As a movie, Relay does have certain bothersome elements, where viewers damn characters are damned if they do or don’t. Sure, asking for curtains may seem suspicious for the concierge but ask for curtains anyway, Sarah, God! Maybe this speaks to how we armchair victim behaviours but that topic is too weighty for movies like this. On another note, visually this movie is a treat, with its use of background telling an obviously deeper story. Those visuals, though, promise wiggle room within the movie’s power dynamics, controlling characters who have their own free will. Ash is discovering that the mercenaries aren’t as bad as Sarah, whose damsel-y tendencies may put things off balance.

There’s one of two things about Sarah that make her unique, like who drives a car in New York?! Otherwise, Relay is has the right amount of dumb and smart in a movie about smart people in danger. Georges Melies invented cinema for fun costumes and for hot people to fall in love – this movie has both. There’s a scene here involving classical music and violence that references 50s Hitchcock. And going back to the bothersome details, all of them add up to something big happening in the third act. The gaggle of critics with whom I saw this movie debated that act but I liked it, and watch it to discover why.

Relay is available to watch is select Canadian theatres. Text the number 551-525-3037, and wait for the call.