🔗 Share this article

The movie boasts a talented cast, telling the real-life tale of Irish boxing trainer Ingle, who guided a brash Yorkshire youth from Yemeni immigrant parents. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the youngster was taught to stand up to prejudice and molded into a media-friendly world champion in the late 90s. Ingle cultivated his showboating arrogance and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, the boxer betrayed his coach, cutting him out and making him a blend of John Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Brosnan portrays Ingle; El-Masry embodies the role of the prince, and Stephens appears as the bullish London promoter Frank Warren, who saw the goldmine that Ingle had uncovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the movie frankly lacks the fighter’s agility: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the crucial drama in between is consistently flat and monotonous. It lacks nuance or contrast in the portrayal of the protagonist himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, isn’t given 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.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is often burdened by utilitarian, explanatory dialogue that inform you precisely what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your career at seven years old …”). This is the sort of dialogue that digital producers call “second-screen”, ensuring you know what’s unfolding while you’re watching the film but also glancing at your phone. Additionally, the background music is overpowering, at times almost deafening, particularly in the moment where the boxer gets overexcited visiting Warren in his luxurious residence.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

While El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable utmost, their relationship doesn’t quite ignites, and the major boxing moments are frequently disappointingly truncated. The most important moment is surely when, goaded past his limit in the gym one day by the boxer as a misguided “elder”, the trainer in fact offers to step into the ring and box him. Everyone in the gym is shocked and uncomfortable. In what way is this extremely unwise confrontation going to unfold? What will be the ending? Certainly the Prince is going to kill him? Alternatively will he emotionally hold back? It’s not clear.

Highlights and Humor

That’s not to say that there aren’t some nice jabs. The actor gets laughs when his character informs a journalist what he’s teaching the youths from his neighborhood: to reject prejudice and when you encounter a offender, “Punch him in the bollocks”. It’s funny too when Hamed fidgets at the silly antics Ingle makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “beast from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the falling out, the film shows this as being exacerbated by a tell-all publication that the trainer is supposed to have written (a plot point evidently adapted from another source), and there is an intriguingly conceived final conversation – although the emotional tribute that Hamed is supposed to have paid to his mentor after his passing is merely referenced in the closing credits, and not dramatised on screen. Some interesting material in this film, but the blows fail to connect.

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