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This film features a talented cast, depicting the true tale of Irish boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, who mentored a brash Yorkshire youth from Yemeni immigrant parents. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to confront prejudice and transformed into a media-friendly world champion in the late 90s. Ingle cultivated his showboating confidence and powerful punches, but after achieving wealth, Hamed turned against his coach, excluding him and turning him into a mix of Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Pierce Brosnan portrays the trainer; Amir El-Masry takes on the role of Hamed, and Toby Stephens appears as the bullish London promoter Frank Warren, who saw the potential that the coach had discovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the movie honestly lacks the fighter’s agility: the boxing sequences flow well, but the all-important drama between them is consistently dull and one-note. There is no nuance or light and shade in the portrayal of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, isn’t given the chance to show any depth or much of what might make his character truly engaging – although he’s obviously been working out and appears convincing in the ring.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is repeatedly burdened by functional, expositional lines that inform you precisely what is going on and what we are supposed to be thinking (“You started your boxing journey at age seven …”). This is the kind 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 overbearing, at times almost deafening, especially in the moment where Hamed gets overexcited visiting Warren in his palatial residence.

Performances and Key Moments

Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable utmost, their dynamic never really comes to life, and the big set-piece boxing moments are often disappointingly cut short. A key moment is surely when, goaded past his limit in the gym one day by the boxer as a misguided “old man”, the trainer in fact proposes to get in the ring and fight him. All present in the room is shocked and uncomfortable. How exactly is this insanely unwise confrontation going to unfold? How precisely the outcome? Certainly the Prince is going to kill 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 gets laughs when his character informs a journalist what he’s instructing the kids from his local community: to reject prejudice and when you encounter a paedophile, “Hit them in the bollocks”. It’s funny too when Hamed squirms at the ridiculous stunts Ingle makes him do in the beginning: acting like the “monster from the East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

As for the falling out, the movie depicts this as being worsened by a revealing book that the trainer is supposed to have authored (a plot point evidently adapted from prior material), and there is an intriguingly conceived last discussion – however the heartfelt homage that the boxer is supposed to have paid to his mentor after his passing is only referenced in the end titles, and not dramatised on film. Some interesting material here, but the punches fail to connect.

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