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The movie boasts a impressive cast, depicting the real-life story of Irish boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, who guided a brash Sheffield teenager from Middle Eastern immigrant family. Known as Naseem Hamed, the youngster was taught to stand up to prejudice and molded into a celebrity titleholder in the 1990s. The trainer nurtured his showboating arrogance and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, the boxer turned against his mentor, cutting him out and turning him into a blend of John Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Brosnan plays Ingle; El-Masry takes on the part of the prince, and Stephens is the assertive London promoter Frank Warren, who saw the goldmine that Ingle had uncovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the movie frankly lacks the Prince’s agility: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the crucial story in between is consistently flat and one-note. It lacks subtlety or contrast in the portrayal of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the chance to display any depth or much of what might make his role truly engaging – although he’s obviously been training and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Problems with Script and Sound

The drama is repeatedly burdened by functional, explanatory dialogue that tell you exactly what is going on and what we are supposed to be thinking (“You started your boxing journey at seven years old …”). It is the kind of script that digital executives call “double-screen”, making sure you know what’s going on while you’re watching the film but also checking your device. And, the background music is overpowering, at times almost deafening, particularly in the scene where the boxer gets too excited calling on the promoter in his palatial home.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

While the leads do their considerable best, their relationship doesn’t quite comes to life, and the major boxing moments are frequently anticlimactically cut short. A key moment is certainly when, provoked past his limit in the gym one day by Hamed as a misguided “old man”, Ingle in fact proposes to get in the ring and box him. Everyone in the gym is stunned and uneasy. In what way is this insanely unwise standoff going to play out? How precisely the outcome? Surely the Prince is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he emotionally hold back? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Highlights and Humor

That’s not to say that there aren’t some good moments. The actor elicits humor when Ingle informs a reporter what he’s teaching the kids from his neighborhood: to reject bias and when you meet a paedophile, “Punch him in the groin”. Amusing too when the boxer fidgets at the silly antics Ingle makes him do in the beginning: acting like the “monster from the Middle East”.

Plot and Conclusion

As for the rift, the film depicts this as being worsened by a revealing publication that Ingle is supposed to have written (a plot point clearly adapted from prior material), and there is an interestingly conceived last discussion – however the heartfelt homage that the boxer is supposed to have paid to his mentor after his death is only mentioned in the end titles, and not dramatised on film. There is interesting material in this film, but the punches don’t land.

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