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This film features a impressive cast, depicting the real-life story of coach Ingle, who guided a brash Sheffield teenager from Yemeni migrant parents. Dubbed “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to stand up to racist bullies and molded into a media-friendly titleholder in the late 90s. The trainer cultivated his flamboyant arrogance and powerful punches, but after becoming rich, Hamed betrayed his coach, cutting him out and making him a blend of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan plays the trainer; Amir El-Masry takes on the role of Hamed, and Toby Stephens appears as the assertive London promoter Frank Warren, who saw the goldmine that the coach had discovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the film honestly lacks the fighter’s agility: the boxing sequences flow well, but the all-important story in between is consistently flat and monotonous. It lacks nuance or light and shade in the depiction of Hamed himself, and the actor, an otherwise outstanding performer, doesn’t get the opportunity to show any subtlety 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, explanatory lines that inform you precisely what is happening and what we are supposed to be thinking (“You started your boxing journey at age seven …”). It is the kind of dialogue that streaming-TV executives call “second-screen”, ensuring you understand what’s unfolding while you’re viewing the film but also glancing at your device. Additionally, the background music is overpowering, at times nearly deafening, particularly in the moment where the boxer gets too excited calling on the promoter in his luxurious residence.

Performances and Key Moments

While the leads do their considerable utmost, their relationship doesn’t quite ignites, and the major boxing moments are often disappointingly cut short. The most important scene is surely when, goaded beyond endurance in the training facility one day by the boxer as a delusional “elder”, Ingle actually offers to get in the ring and fight him. All present in the gym is stunned and uncomfortable. In what way is this insanely unwise confrontation going to play out? What will be the ending? Surely the Prince is going to kill 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 tells a reporter what he’s teaching the kids from his neighborhood: to reject prejudice and when you encounter a paedophile, “Punch him in the bollocks”. Amusing too when Hamed fidgets at the ridiculous antics the coach makes him do in the early days: acting like the “monster from the East”.

Plot and Conclusion

Regarding the falling out, the movie depicts this as being exacerbated by a tell-all publication that the trainer is allegedly authored (a plot point clearly adapted from prior material), and there is an intriguingly imagined final conversation – however the heartfelt homage that Hamed is reportedly given to his mentor after his death is merely mentioned in the end titles, and not dramatised on screen. Some engaging content in this film, but the blows fail to connect.

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