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The movie boasts a impressive cast, depicting the real-life story of Irish boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, who mentored a brash Sheffield teenager from Middle Eastern immigrant family. Known as Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to stand up to prejudice and transformed into a media-friendly titleholder in the late 90s. The trainer cultivated his flamboyant confidence and lethal fists, but after achieving wealth, Hamed turned against his mentor, cutting him out and making him a mix of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Brosnan portrays the trainer; El-Masry takes on the part of the prince, and Stephens appears as the assertive London promoter Frank Warren, who recognized the goldmine that Ingle had uncovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

Yet, the movie honestly misses the fighter’s agility: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the crucial story between them is consistently flat and one-note. There is no subtlety or contrast in the depiction of the protagonist himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the chance to display any depth or much of what might make his role truly engaging – even though he’s obviously been working out and appears convincing in the ring.

Problems with Script and Sound

The drama is often burdened by utilitarian, expositional dialogue that tell you exactly what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your boxing journey at age seven …”). It is the kind of script that streaming-TV producers call “second-screen”, ensuring you understand what’s going on while you’re watching the movie but also checking your device. And, the background music is overpowering, at times almost deafening, particularly in the scene where the boxer gets too excited calling on the promoter in his palatial residence.

Performances and Key Moments

While the leads do their very best, their dynamic doesn’t quite ignites, and the big set-piece fight scenes are frequently anticlimactically cut short. A key moment is certainly when, goaded beyond endurance in the gym one day by the boxer as a delusional “elder”, the trainer in fact offers to get in the ring and box him. Everyone in the gym is stunned and uncomfortable. In what way is this extremely risky confrontation going to play out? How precisely the outcome? Certainly the champion is going to defeat him? Or will he sentimentally pull his punches? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Bright Spots and Comedy

That’s not to say that there aren’t some good moments. Brosnan elicits humor when his character tells a reporter what he’s teaching the youths from his neighborhood: to reject bias and when you meet a paedophile, “Hit them in the bollocks”. Amusing too when the boxer squirms at the silly stunts Ingle makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “monster from the East”.

Plot and Conclusion

As for the falling out, the film depicts this as being worsened by a tell-all publication that the trainer is supposed to have written (a plot point evidently adapted from prior material), and there is an intriguingly conceived last discussion – although the heartfelt homage that the boxer is reportedly paid to his mentor after his passing is merely referenced in the closing credits, and not dramatised on screen. There is engaging content here, but the blows don’t land.

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