“The Negotiator” is not a remake of the hostage thriller of the same name with Kevin Spacey and Samuel L. Jackson (which is called “Negotiation” in this country). Instead, the original English “Relay” refers to a legally prescribed service of the US telephony companies, which even most of the Americans should be little or no known: People with hearing or language disabilities can still use them to be able to make calls. You only have to type in your answers, whereupon you read an employee of the telephone company to the other person on the other end of the line. Ash (Riz Ahmed) also regularly uses the relay service …
… but not because of any disabilities, but because this guarantees him absolute anonymity: on the one hand, he does not have to use his voice, on the other hand, the phone calls can be traced back to the relay provider, but not to the original calling-almost a kind of analog VPN. Director David Mackenzie (“Hell or High Water”) and screenwriter Justin Piasecki (“Last Meals”) serve a number of precise details, as is still possible to act anonymously despite total digital monitoring – think of a more realistic version of “The State enemy No. 1”. Unfortunately, they still give up their pleasantly down -to -earth and therefore exciting approach on the home stretch.
Ash (Riz Ahmed) thinks of every detail and absolutely does not take any risks – at least until he develops a personal interest in his new client.
Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, Frances Haugen-We all know the names of these whistleblower, who have brought the secret machinations of the NSA, the US military or the meta-group. But what actually happens when potential whistleblower get cold feet after stealing the data and simply want to give everything back? This is not so easy-because despite rethinking, they remain a danger for the group, since you can never be sure whether there is really no more copy or the (ex) employee does not unpack. From a wave of lawsuits to fictitious suicide, everything seems conceivable – and that's exactly where Ash comes into play.
His job is to enable whistleblower as a safe way out of the sludgeassel – for a fee that has to be paid for largely from the corresponding corporations that want to continue to keep your stressful data under lock and key. His latest customer: the scientist Sarah (Lily James), who worked for an agricultural company whose genetically manipulated seeds could have potentially fatal side effects. However, it is anything but easy for Ash to communicate with his client at all-after all, she is under the constant surveillance of a group of industrial spy (including Sam Sam Worthington, Willa Fitzgerald) who are ready to do the research documents and make Sarah harmless …
Little words, a lot of tension
It takes more than 30 minutes before Riz Ahmed (“Nightcrawler”) speaks for the first time – and even in the entire film, he only has more than a few dozen sentences. The idea with the relay service is not only exciting for spy-tactical reasons, but also makes the relationship between Ash and Sarah particularly interesting: the two exchange highly sensitive and sometimes very intimate information on the phone, but between them there is always one (other) person who speaks out the words aloud-even then with an absolutely professional objectivity, for example, if the special processes of money are given. A fascinating coexistence of distance and closeness.
But not only information, but also documents have to be exchanged-and here too every detail counts: Ash sends Sarah on a spontaneous journey through half the USA and does not use the telephone companies here for a change, but the special features of the US post office to the smallest ramifications. This is sometimes reminiscent of the airport sequence from “Mission: Impossible 7-Dead Reckoning”-just that shaking off the grease in “The Negotiator” even nerve-wracking device, simply because it is presented so pleasantly down-to-earth and without spectacular science fiction gadgets.
Sarah (Lily James) is not only monitored around the clock, otherwise your ex-group will also put the worst bully tactics to make her.
“The Negotiator” is always the best when it focuses entirely on the procedural processes – so simply indicate as precisely as possible how things go technically. After all, Ash is a professional who moves every eventuality into its plans – at least until his protective instinct for Sarah wins the upper hand at some point: In the final half an hour, this not only leads to increasing carelessness at Ash, but also to a generic thriller with an obvious and little convincing turns. Here Hollywood's formula was struck again shortly before the end.
Conclusion: After one and a half high-spaning hours, which, in addition to the great presence of Oscar winner Riz Ahmed, shine primarily with their precise representation of spy details, David Mackenzie fails with an unnecessary and unbelievable (and at the same moment still predictable) turn. An above -average thriller remains “The Negotiator”.