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The movie boasts a impressive ensemble, telling the true story of Irish boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, who mentored a brash Sheffield youth from Middle Eastern immigrant parents. Dubbed “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the youngster was coached to confront prejudice and transformed into a media-friendly world champion in the 1990s. Ingle cultivated his showboating confidence and powerful punches, but after becoming rich, the boxer turned against his coach, cutting him out and making him a blend of Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Pierce Brosnan plays the trainer; El-Masry takes on the part of the prince, and Toby Stephens is the bullish promoter Frank Warren, who saw the goldmine that Ingle had uncovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

However, the movie honestly misses the fighter’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences flow well, but the all-important drama in between is repeatedly flat and monotonous. It lacks subtlety or contrast in the depiction of Hamed himself, and the actor, an otherwise outstanding performer, isn’t given the chance to display any depth or much of what might make his role really interesting – even though he’s obviously been training and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The drama is often burdened by utilitarian, expositional dialogue that tell you exactly what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your boxing journey at age seven …”). It is the sort of dialogue that streaming-TV executives call “double-screen”, making sure you know what’s going on while you’re viewing the movie but also glancing at your device. And, the background music is overpowering, sometimes almost overwhelming, particularly in the moment where the boxer gets overexcited visiting the promoter in his luxurious residence.

Performances and Key Moments

Although the leads do their considerable utmost, their dynamic doesn’t quite comes to life, and the big set-piece fight scenes are often disappointingly truncated. The most important scene is certainly when, provoked beyond endurance in the training facility one day by Hamed as a delusional “old man”, Ingle actually offers to get in the ring and fight him. Everyone in the gym is shocked and uneasy. How exactly is this extremely risky confrontation going to unfold? How precisely the ending? Surely the champion is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he emotionally hold back? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Highlights and Humor

This isn’t to imply that there are no some nice jabs. Brosnan elicits humor when Ingle informs a reporter what he’s teaching the youths from his local community: to oppose prejudice and when you meet a offender, “Hit them in the bollocks”. Amusing too when Hamed fidgets at the ridiculous antics Ingle makes him do in the early days: acting like the “beast from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the falling out, the movie depicts this as being exacerbated by a tell-all publication that the trainer is allegedly written (a story element evidently adapted from another source), and there is an interestingly imagined final conversation – although the emotional tribute that Hamed is supposed to have given to Ingle after his death is merely mentioned in the closing credits, and not shown on film. There is interesting material here, 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.