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The movie features a impressive ensemble, telling the true story of coach Ingle, who mentored a brash Yorkshire youth from Yemeni migrant family. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to confront prejudice and molded into a media-friendly world champion in the 1990s. The trainer nurtured his flamboyant confidence and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, Hamed betrayed his coach, excluding him and turning him into a mix of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan portrays Ingle; Amir El-Masry takes on the role of the prince, and Toby Stephens appears as the assertive London promoter Frank Warren, who saw the potential that Ingle had uncovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

However, the movie honestly lacks the fighter’s agility: the boxing sequences flow well, but the crucial story between them is consistently flat and one-note. There is no nuance or light and shade in the portrayal of the protagonist himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, doesn’t get the chance to display any depth or much of what might make his role really interesting – even though he’s obviously been working out and looks very plausible in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is often lumbered with functional, explanatory dialogue that inform you precisely what is happening and what we are supposed to be thinking (“You started your boxing journey at age seven …”). It is the sort of script that streaming-TV producers call “second-screen”, ensuring you know what’s unfolding while you’re viewing the movie but also checking your phone. And, the background music is overbearing, at times nearly overwhelming, especially in the moment where Hamed gets overexcited visiting the promoter in his luxurious home.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

Although the leads do their very utmost, their dynamic doesn’t quite comes to life, and the big set-piece boxing moments are frequently anticlimactically cut short. The most important scene is surely when, goaded past his limit in the gym one day by Hamed as a misguided “old man”, Ingle in fact offers to get in the ring and box him. Everyone in the gym is shocked and uneasy. In what way is this insanely risky standoff going to unfold? What will be the ending? Certainly the champion is going to kill him? Or will he emotionally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Highlights and Humor

That’s not to say that there are no some good moments. The actor elicits humor when Ingle tells a journalist what he’s teaching the kids from his neighborhood: to reject bias and when you encounter a paedophile, “Punch him in the groin”. Amusing too when the boxer fidgets at the ridiculous stunts the coach makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “monster from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the falling out, the movie shows this as being exacerbated by a revealing book that Ingle is supposed to have written (a plot point evidently modified from prior material), and there is an intriguingly conceived last discussion – however the heartfelt homage that the boxer is supposed to have given to his mentor after his death is only mentioned in the closing credits, and not dramatised on film. Some engaging content 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.