🔗 Share this article

This film boasts a talented ensemble, telling the true tale of coach Ingle, who guided a brash Sheffield teenager from Yemeni immigrant parents. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to confront prejudice and molded into a celebrity titleholder in the late 90s. Ingle nurtured his flamboyant arrogance and powerful punches, but after achieving wealth, Hamed betrayed his coach, cutting him out and turning him into a blend of Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Pierce Brosnan plays the trainer; El-Masry embodies the role of the prince, and Stephens appears as the bullish promoter Frank Warren, who saw the potential that the coach had discovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the movie frankly lacks the fighter’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the all-important drama in between is consistently flat and monotonous. It lacks subtlety or light and shade in the depiction of the protagonist himself, and the actor, an otherwise outstanding performer, doesn’t get the chance to show any subtlety or much of what might make his character truly engaging – although he’s obviously been working out and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Problems with Script and Sound

The story is often burdened by functional, explanatory dialogue that inform you precisely what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your boxing journey at age seven …”). This is the sort of script that streaming-TV executives call “double-screen”, making sure you know what’s going on while you’re watching the movie but also checking your phone. Additionally, the score is overpowering, sometimes nearly overwhelming, especially in the scene where the boxer gets overexcited calling on the promoter in his luxurious residence.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

While El-Masry and Brosnan do their very best, their dynamic never really ignites, and the major fight scenes are frequently anticlimactically cut short. A key scene 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. All present in the room is shocked and uncomfortable. How exactly is this insanely risky standoff going to unfold? What will be the ending? Certainly the Prince is going to kill him? Or will he sentimentally hold back? It’s not clear.

Highlights and Humor

That’s not to say that there are no some good moments. Brosnan elicits humor when Ingle informs a journalist what he’s teaching the youths from his local community: to reject bias and when you meet a offender, “Punch him in the bollocks”. Amusing too when Hamed squirms at the ridiculous stunts the coach makes him do in the early days: posing as the “beast from the Middle East”.

Plot and Conclusion

Regarding the rift, the film depicts this as being exacerbated by a revealing publication that the trainer is allegedly written (a story element clearly modified from prior material), and there is an interestingly imagined last discussion – however the heartfelt homage that Hamed is reportedly paid to his mentor after his passing is merely referenced in the closing credits, and not dramatised on screen. Some engaging content in this film, but the punches fail to connect.

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