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This film boasts a impressive ensemble, telling the true story of Irish boxing trainer Ingle, who mentored a cheeky Sheffield teenager from Middle Eastern migrant parents. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to stand up to racist bullies and molded into a media-friendly titleholder in the 1990s. Ingle cultivated his flamboyant confidence and lethal fists, but after achieving wealth, Hamed turned against his coach, cutting him out and turning him into a mix of John Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Pierce Brosnan plays Ingle; Amir El-Masry takes on the role of the prince, and Toby Stephens is the assertive London promoter Frank Warren, who recognized the goldmine that the coach had uncovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

However, the movie honestly lacks the Prince’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the all-important story between them is repeatedly dull and monotonous. It lacks subtlety or contrast in the depiction of the protagonist himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the chance to show any depth or much of what might make his role really interesting – even though he’s clearly been training and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Problems with Script and Sound

The story is repeatedly lumbered with functional, expositional dialogue that tell you precisely what is happening and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your career at age seven …”). It is the kind of dialogue that digital producers call “double-screen”, ensuring you know what’s unfolding while you’re watching the movie but also glancing at your phone. Additionally, the score is overbearing, at times nearly deafening, particularly in the scene where the boxer gets too excited calling on the promoter in his luxurious residence.

Performances and Key Moments

Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their very best, their relationship doesn’t quite comes to life, and the major boxing moments are often anticlimactically truncated. The most important moment is surely when, goaded beyond endurance in the gym one day by Hamed as a misguided “old man”, Ingle in fact offers to step into the ring and box him. All present in the room is stunned and uneasy. In what way is this insanely risky confrontation going to unfold? What will be the ending? Certainly the Prince is going to kill him? Or will he emotionally hold back? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Highlights and Humor

This isn’t to imply that there aren’t some nice jabs. Brosnan gets laughs when his character tells a journalist what he’s teaching the youths from his local community: to reject prejudice and when you meet a offender, “Punch him in the bollocks”. It’s funny too when Hamed squirms at the ridiculous stunts Ingle makes him do in the early days: acting like the “monster from the East”.

Plot and Conclusion

Regarding the rift, the film depicts this as being worsened by a tell-all book that the trainer is supposed to have authored (a story element evidently modified from another source), and there is an interestingly imagined last discussion – although the heartfelt homage that Hamed is supposed to have given to Ingle after his passing is merely referenced in the end titles, and not shown on film. There is interesting material in this film, but the punches fail to connect.

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