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The movie boasts a talented cast, telling the real-life story of coach Brendan Ingle, who guided a cheeky Sheffield teenager from Yemeni immigrant family. Known as Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to stand up to prejudice and transformed into a celebrity titleholder in the 1990s. The trainer nurtured his flamboyant arrogance and lethal fists, but after achieving wealth, Hamed betrayed his mentor, excluding him and making him a mix of Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Pierce Brosnan portrays the trainer; El-Masry embodies the part of Hamed, and Toby Stephens appears as the assertive promoter Frank Warren, who saw the goldmine that Ingle had uncovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

Yet, the movie honestly misses the Prince’s agility: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the crucial story between them is repeatedly dull and one-note. It lacks subtlety or light and shade in the portrayal of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, doesn’t get the chance to display any subtlety or much of what might make his character truly engaging – even though he’s obviously been training and looks very plausible in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The drama is often lumbered with utilitarian, explanatory lines that inform you exactly what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“You started your boxing journey at seven years old …”). It is the kind of script that digital producers call “double-screen”, ensuring you understand what’s unfolding while you’re watching the movie but also glancing at your phone. And, the score is overpowering, at times nearly deafening, especially in the scene where the boxer gets overexcited calling on Warren in his luxurious home.

Performances and Key Moments

Although the leads do their considerable best, their dynamic doesn’t quite ignites, and the big set-piece boxing moments are frequently anticlimactically truncated. A key scene is certainly when, provoked beyond endurance in the training facility one day by Hamed as a delusional “old man”, Ingle actually proposes to step into the ring and box him. All present in the gym is stunned and uneasy. How exactly is this extremely unwise standoff going to unfold? How precisely the outcome? Surely the champion is going to kill him? Or will he emotionally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Highlights and Humor

This isn’t to imply that there are no some nice jabs. The actor gets laughs when his character informs a reporter what he’s teaching the kids from his neighborhood: to reject bias and when you encounter a paedophile, “Hit them in the bollocks”. Amusing too when the boxer squirms at the silly stunts Ingle makes him do in the early days: posing as the “beast from the Middle East”.

Plot and Conclusion

As for the rift, the movie shows this as being exacerbated by a tell-all publication that Ingle is supposed to have written (a plot point clearly adapted from prior material), and there is an interestingly conceived last discussion – although the heartfelt homage that Hamed is reportedly paid to Ingle after his passing is merely referenced in the closing credits, and not shown on film. There is interesting material in this film, but the blows don’t land.

Giant was shown at the festival and is available in British and Irish cinemas from January 9.