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This film boasts a talented ensemble, telling the true story of Irish boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, who guided a brash Sheffield teenager from Yemeni migrant family. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to confront racist bullies and transformed into a celebrity titleholder in the 1990s. The trainer cultivated his flamboyant arrogance and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, the boxer turned against his coach, cutting him out and turning him into a blend of John Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan portrays the trainer; El-Masry embodies the role of Hamed, and Stephens appears as the assertive London promoter Warren, who saw the goldmine that Ingle had discovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the film frankly lacks the Prince’s agility: the boxing sequences flow well, but the crucial story in between is repeatedly flat and one-note. It lacks nuance or contrast in the portrayal of Hamed himself, and the actor, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the opportunity to display any depth or much of what might make his character truly engaging – even though he’s clearly been working out and looks very plausible in the boxing arena.

Problems with Script and Sound

The drama is repeatedly lumbered with functional, expositional lines that tell you exactly what is happening and what we are meant to feel (“You started your boxing journey at seven years old …”). This is the kind of dialogue that streaming-TV producers call “double-screen”, making sure you understand what’s unfolding while you’re viewing the movie but also glancing at your device. Additionally, the score is overpowering, sometimes almost overwhelming, especially in the moment where Hamed gets overexcited visiting Warren in his palatial home.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their very utmost, their relationship doesn’t quite ignites, and the major fight scenes are often disappointingly cut short. A key moment is certainly when, provoked past his limit in the training facility one day by Hamed as a delusional “elder”, the trainer actually offers to get in the ring and fight him. All present in the room is shocked and uneasy. How exactly is this extremely unwise standoff going to play out? How precisely the ending? Certainly the champion is going to defeat him? Or will he emotionally hold back? It’s not clear.

Highlights and Humor

That’s not to say that there are no some nice jabs. The actor elicits humor when Ingle informs a reporter what he’s instructing the kids from his local community: to oppose prejudice and when you encounter a paedophile, “Punch him in the groin”. It’s funny too when the boxer squirms at the ridiculous stunts the coach makes him do in the early days: acting like the “beast from the East”.

Plot and Conclusion

As for the falling out, the film shows this as being exacerbated by a revealing book that Ingle is supposed to have authored (a story element clearly modified from another source), and there is an interestingly imagined final conversation – however the heartfelt homage that the boxer is supposed to have given to Ingle after his death is merely referenced in the closing credits, and not shown on screen. Some engaging content in this film, but the blows fail to connect.

Giant was shown at the London film festival and is available in UK and Irish theaters from 9 January.