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This film features a talented ensemble, depicting the true story of Irish boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, who mentored a cheeky Sheffield teenager from Middle Eastern immigrant parents. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the youngster was coached to stand up to prejudice and transformed into a media-friendly titleholder in the late 90s. The trainer nurtured his flamboyant confidence and powerful punches, but after achieving wealth, the boxer turned against his coach, cutting him out and turning him into a blend of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

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

Where the Movie Falls Short

However, the film honestly lacks the Prince’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the all-important story between them is repeatedly flat and monotonous. It lacks subtlety or contrast in the portrayal of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, isn’t given the opportunity to display any subtlety or much of what might make his character really interesting – although he’s clearly been training and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is often lumbered with utilitarian, explanatory dialogue that inform you precisely what is happening and what we are supposed to be thinking (“You started your career at age seven …”). It is the sort of script that streaming-TV executives call “double-screen”, making sure you know what’s unfolding while you’re viewing the movie but also checking your device. Additionally, the background music is overpowering, at times almost overwhelming, particularly in the moment where Hamed gets too excited visiting the promoter in his palatial home.

Performances and Key Moments

Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable utmost, their dynamic never really comes to life, and the major boxing moments are often anticlimactically truncated. The most important scene is certainly when, goaded past his limit in the gym one day by Hamed as a delusional “old man”, Ingle actually proposes to step into the ring and box him. All present in the room is shocked and uncomfortable. How exactly is this extremely unwise standoff going to unfold? How precisely the ending? Certainly the Prince is going to kill him? Alternatively will he sentimentally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Bright Spots and Comedy

That’s not to say that there aren’t some nice jabs. The actor gets laughs when Ingle tells a journalist what he’s instructing the youths from his local community: to reject prejudice and when you meet a paedophile, “Hit them in the bollocks”. Amusing too when the boxer squirms at the silly stunts the coach makes him do in the beginning: acting like the “monster from the East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

As for the falling out, the film shows this as being worsened by a tell-all book that the trainer is supposed to have authored (a story element evidently adapted from another source), and there is an intriguingly imagined final conversation – although the heartfelt homage that Hamed is supposed to have given to Ingle after his passing is only mentioned in the end titles, 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 in UK and Irish cinemas from January 9.