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The movie boasts a impressive ensemble, depicting the real-life tale of coach Brendan Ingle, who guided a brash Yorkshire teenager from Yemeni migrant family. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the youngster was coached to confront prejudice and transformed into a media-friendly world champion in the late 90s. Ingle nurtured his showboating confidence and powerful punches, but after achieving wealth, Hamed betrayed his coach, excluding him and making him a blend of Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan portrays Ingle; El-Masry embodies the role of the prince, and Stephens appears as the bullish London promoter Warren, who recognized the potential that Ingle had discovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

However, the film honestly misses the Prince’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the all-important story between them is consistently dull and one-note. There is no nuance or light and shade in the depiction of Hamed himself, and the actor, an otherwise outstanding performer, doesn’t get the opportunity to show any depth or much of what might make his role truly engaging – even though he’s clearly been training and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is often burdened by functional, explanatory dialogue that tell you exactly what is happening and what we are supposed to be thinking (“Your journey began your boxing journey at seven years old …”). This is the sort of script that streaming-TV producers call “double-screen”, ensuring you know what’s going on while you’re watching the movie but also checking your device. And, the score is overbearing, at times nearly deafening, particularly in the scene where Hamed gets overexcited visiting Warren in his luxurious home.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

While El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable utmost, their dynamic never really ignites, and the major boxing moments are frequently anticlimactically truncated. A key moment is certainly when, provoked beyond endurance in the training facility one day by the boxer as a delusional “old man”, the trainer actually proposes to get in the ring and box him. Everyone in the gym is shocked and uneasy. How exactly is this insanely risky standoff going to unfold? What will be the outcome? Certainly the Prince is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he emotionally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Bright Spots and Comedy

This isn’t to imply that there are no some good moments. The actor elicits humor when his character tells a reporter what he’s instructing the youths from his neighborhood: to oppose prejudice and when you encounter a paedophile, “Hit them in the bollocks”. It’s funny too when the boxer squirms at the silly stunts Ingle makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “beast from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the falling out, the movie shows this as being worsened by a revealing publication that Ingle is supposed to have written (a plot point evidently adapted from prior material), and there is an intriguingly conceived last discussion – although the emotional tribute that the boxer is reportedly given to his mentor after his passing is only referenced in the closing credits, and not dramatised on screen. There is engaging content in this film, but the punches fail to connect.

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