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The movie boasts a impressive ensemble, depicting the real-life story of Irish boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, who mentored a brash Yorkshire teenager from Middle Eastern migrant parents. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the youngster was coached to stand up to racist bullies and molded into a celebrity world champion in the 1990s. Ingle nurtured his flamboyant confidence and lethal fists, but after achieving wealth, Hamed betrayed his mentor, cutting him out and making him a mix of John Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan portrays Ingle; Amir El-Masry takes on the part of the prince, and Toby Stephens appears as the bullish promoter Frank Warren, who saw the goldmine that the coach had discovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

However, the movie honestly misses the Prince’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the all-important drama between them is repeatedly flat and one-note. It lacks nuance or light and shade in the depiction of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, isn’t given the chance to show any subtlety or much of what might make his role truly engaging – although he’s clearly been working out and appears convincing in the ring.

Problems with Script and Sound

The drama is repeatedly burdened by utilitarian, explanatory dialogue that tell you exactly what is happening and what we are supposed to be thinking (“You started your career at age seven …”). It is the sort of script that digital producers call “double-screen”, ensuring you understand what’s unfolding while you’re viewing the movie but also checking your device. And, the background music is overpowering, at times almost deafening, particularly in the scene where Hamed gets too excited calling on the promoter in his palatial residence.

Performances and Key Moments

Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable utmost, their relationship never really comes to life, and the major boxing moments are frequently anticlimactically truncated. A key moment is surely when, provoked beyond endurance in the gym one day by Hamed as a delusional “elder”, the trainer in fact offers to get in the ring and box him. Everyone in the room is stunned and uncomfortable. How exactly is this extremely unwise standoff going to unfold? What will be the outcome? Surely the Prince is going to kill him? Alternatively will he sentimentally hold back? It’s not clear.

Highlights and Humor

This isn’t to imply that there aren’t some nice jabs. The actor gets laughs when Ingle informs a journalist what he’s instructing the kids from his neighborhood: to reject prejudice and when you encounter a paedophile, “Punch him in the bollocks”. Amusing too when the boxer squirms at the ridiculous antics Ingle makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “beast from the East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the falling out, the movie shows this as being exacerbated by a revealing book that the trainer is allegedly written (a story element evidently modified from another source), and there is an interestingly imagined final conversation – although the emotional tribute that Hamed is supposed to have paid to his mentor after his passing is merely referenced in the end titles, and not shown on screen. There is interesting material here, but the blows don’t land.

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