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This film boasts a impressive cast, depicting the real-life story of coach Brendan Ingle, who guided a cheeky Yorkshire teenager from Yemeni immigrant family. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the youngster was taught to confront racist bullies and molded into a celebrity world champion in the late 90s. The trainer nurtured his showboating arrogance and powerful punches, but after becoming rich, the boxer turned against his mentor, excluding him and making him a mix of John Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan plays Ingle; Amir El-Masry embodies the role of Hamed, and Toby Stephens is the assertive promoter Frank Warren, who saw the potential that Ingle had discovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the movie frankly lacks the fighter’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the crucial story in between is consistently flat and monotonous. There is no nuance or contrast in the portrayal of the protagonist himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, isn’t given the opportunity to show any subtlety or much of what might make his role truly engaging – although he’s obviously been training and appears convincing in the ring.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is repeatedly lumbered with utilitarian, expositional dialogue that inform you precisely what is happening and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your career at age seven …”). This is the sort of script that digital producers call “double-screen”, ensuring you know what’s going on while you’re viewing the film but also checking your phone. Additionally, the score is overpowering, sometimes almost deafening, especially in the moment where the boxer gets too excited calling on Warren in his palatial home.

Performances and Key Moments

While El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable best, their dynamic doesn’t quite ignites, and the major boxing moments are frequently anticlimactically cut short. A key scene is surely when, provoked beyond endurance in the gym one day by the boxer as a misguided “old man”, the trainer actually proposes to get in the ring and box him. All present in the room is shocked and uncomfortable. In what way is this extremely risky confrontation going to unfold? How precisely the outcome? Certainly the champion is going to kill him? Alternatively will he emotionally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Bright Spots and Comedy

That’s not to say that there aren’t some nice jabs. Brosnan gets laughs when Ingle informs a reporter what he’s teaching the youths from his neighborhood: to reject bias and when you encounter a offender, “Punch him in the bollocks”. Amusing too when the boxer fidgets at the ridiculous antics Ingle makes him do in the early days: acting like the “beast from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

As for the falling out, the movie shows this as being worsened by a tell-all publication that the trainer is allegedly written (a plot point clearly modified from prior material), and there is an interestingly conceived final conversation – although the emotional tribute that the boxer is supposed to have given to Ingle after his death is merely mentioned in the end titles, and not shown on film. There is engaging content in this film, but the blows don’t land.

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