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The movie features a impressive ensemble, depicting the true tale of coach Ingle, who mentored a brash Sheffield youth from Middle Eastern migrant parents. Known as Naseem Hamed, the youngster was taught to stand up to racist bullies and transformed into a celebrity world champion in the 1990s. The trainer nurtured his flamboyant confidence and powerful punches, but after becoming rich, Hamed betrayed his mentor, excluding him and turning him into a mix of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Brosnan plays the trainer; Amir El-Masry embodies the part of Hamed, and Toby Stephens is the bullish promoter Warren, who saw the goldmine that the coach had uncovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

However, the movie honestly lacks the Prince’s agility: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the crucial drama between them is repeatedly flat and monotonous. It lacks nuance or light and shade in the portrayal of the protagonist himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the opportunity to display any depth or much of what might make his character truly engaging – although he’s obviously been working out and looks very plausible in the ring.

Problems with Script and Sound

The drama is often lumbered with functional, expositional lines that inform 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 script that digital executives call “second-screen”, making sure you know what’s unfolding while you’re watching the movie but also checking your device. Additionally, the score is overbearing, sometimes almost deafening, particularly in the scene where the boxer gets overexcited calling on Warren in his palatial residence.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their very best, their dynamic never really comes to life, and the major fight scenes are frequently disappointingly cut short. The most important moment is surely when, goaded beyond endurance in the gym one day by Hamed as a delusional “old man”, Ingle in fact proposes to get in the ring and fight him. Everyone in the room is stunned and uneasy. In what way is this insanely risky confrontation going to play out? How precisely the ending? Certainly the champion is going to kill him? Alternatively will he sentimentally 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 journalist what he’s teaching the youths from his neighborhood: to oppose bias and when you meet a offender, “Hit them in the bollocks”. It’s funny too when the boxer squirms at the silly stunts Ingle makes him do in the early days: acting like the “beast from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

As for the rift, the film depicts 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 last discussion – however the heartfelt homage that Hamed is supposed to have paid to Ingle after his passing is merely mentioned in the closing credits, and not dramatised on film. There is engaging content here, but the punches don’t land.

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