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This film features a talented cast, telling the true story of coach Brendan Ingle, who guided a cheeky Yorkshire youth from Middle Eastern immigrant parents. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to stand up to racist bullies and molded into a media-friendly titleholder in the late 90s. Ingle cultivated his flamboyant arrogance and lethal fists, but after achieving wealth, the boxer turned against his mentor, excluding him and making him a blend of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Brosnan portrays Ingle; El-Masry takes on the role of Hamed, and Stephens appears as the bullish promoter Warren, who recognized the goldmine that Ingle had discovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

Yet, the film frankly misses the Prince’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes flow well, but the all-important drama between them is repeatedly dull and one-note. It lacks subtlety or light and shade in the depiction of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, doesn’t get the opportunity to display any depth or much of what might make his character really interesting – although he’s clearly been working out and appears convincing in the ring.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is often burdened by functional, expositional dialogue that inform you exactly what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“You started your boxing journey at age seven …”). This is the sort of dialogue that digital executives call “second-screen”, ensuring you understand what’s going on while you’re watching the movie but also checking your phone. Additionally, the background music is overpowering, sometimes nearly deafening, especially in the scene where the boxer gets too excited calling on Warren in his palatial residence.

Performances and Key Moments

While El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable utmost, their dynamic never really ignites, and the major boxing moments are frequently disappointingly truncated. The most important moment is surely when, provoked past his limit in the training facility one day by Hamed as a delusional “old man”, Ingle actually offers to step into the ring and box him. All present in the gym is stunned and uncomfortable. How exactly is this extremely risky standoff going to unfold? How precisely the outcome? Certainly the champion is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he emotionally pull his punches? 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 local community: to reject prejudice and when you meet a paedophile, “Hit them in the bollocks”. It’s funny too when the boxer squirms at the silly antics the coach makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “monster from the East”.

Plot and Conclusion

Regarding the falling out, the film shows this as being worsened by a tell-all publication that the trainer is supposed to have authored (a plot point clearly adapted from prior material), and there is an interestingly conceived final conversation – however the heartfelt homage that the boxer is reportedly paid to his mentor after his death is merely referenced in the closing credits, and not shown on film. There is engaging content in this film, but the punches don’t land.

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