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The movie boasts a talented cast, depicting the true tale of coach Brendan Ingle, who guided a cheeky Yorkshire teenager from Yemeni immigrant parents. Dubbed “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to stand up to racist bullies and molded into a celebrity titleholder in the late 90s. Ingle cultivated his flamboyant arrogance and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, the boxer betrayed his mentor, excluding him and turning him into a blend of John Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan portrays the trainer; Amir El-Masry takes on the part 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 film honestly misses the fighter’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the all-important story between them is repeatedly flat and monotonous. It lacks subtlety or light and shade in the depiction of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, isn’t given the opportunity to display any depth or much of what might make his character truly engaging – even though he’s clearly been training and looks very plausible in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is repeatedly lumbered with functional, explanatory lines that tell you exactly what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“You started your career at age seven …”). This is the kind of dialogue that digital producers call “double-screen”, making sure you know what’s unfolding while you’re viewing the movie but also checking your device. Additionally, the score is overbearing, sometimes almost overwhelming, particularly in the scene where the boxer gets overexcited visiting Warren in his luxurious residence.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

Although the leads do their very utmost, their dynamic doesn’t quite ignites, and the major boxing moments are often anticlimactically cut short. A key scene is surely when, provoked beyond endurance in the gym one day by the boxer as a misguided “elder”, the trainer actually offers to get in the ring and box him. Everyone in the gym is stunned and uncomfortable. How exactly is this extremely risky confrontation going to play out? How precisely the outcome? Certainly the Prince is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he sentimentally pull his punches? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Bright Spots and Comedy

This isn’t to imply that there aren’t some good moments. The actor elicits humor when Ingle tells a reporter what he’s instructing the youths from his neighborhood: to oppose prejudice and when you encounter a paedophile, “Punch him in the groin”. Amusing too when Hamed squirms at the ridiculous antics the coach makes him do in the beginning: acting like the “monster from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the rift, the film depicts this as being exacerbated by a revealing book that the trainer is allegedly authored (a plot point evidently modified from prior material), and there is an interestingly conceived last discussion – although the heartfelt homage that the boxer is supposed to have paid to his mentor after his death is only referenced in the end titles, and not shown on film. Some engaging content in this film, but the punches fail to connect.

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