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This film features a impressive cast, telling the real-life tale of coach Ingle, who guided a brash Yorkshire youth from Yemeni migrant family. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to confront prejudice and transformed into a media-friendly world champion in the 1990s. The trainer nurtured his flamboyant confidence and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, Hamed turned against his coach, excluding him and turning him into a mix of John Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Brosnan portrays Ingle; El-Masry takes on the role of Hamed, and Toby Stephens appears as the bullish London promoter Frank Warren, who recognized the goldmine that the coach had uncovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

Yet, the film frankly misses the fighter’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes flow well, but the all-important story in between is consistently flat and monotonous. It lacks nuance or contrast in the portrayal of the protagonist himself, and the actor, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the chance to show any subtlety or much of what might make his character truly engaging – although he’s clearly been working out and appears convincing in the ring.

Problems with Script and Sound

The drama is often lumbered with functional, expositional dialogue that inform you precisely what is happening and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your career at age seven …”). This is the kind of dialogue that streaming-TV producers call “double-screen”, making sure you understand what’s unfolding while you’re viewing the film but also checking your device. And, the score is overbearing, sometimes nearly overwhelming, especially in the scene where the boxer gets overexcited visiting the promoter in his luxurious residence.

Performances and Key Moments

While El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable best, their dynamic doesn’t quite comes to life, and the major fight scenes are often anticlimactically cut short. A key scene is surely when, goaded past his limit in the gym one day by the boxer as a delusional “old man”, the trainer actually proposes to step into the ring and box him. Everyone in the room is shocked and uncomfortable. In what way is this insanely unwise confrontation going to unfold? What will be the ending? Surely the champion is going to kill him? Or will he sentimentally pull his punches? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Bright Spots and Comedy

This isn’t to imply that there aren’t some nice jabs. The actor elicits humor when his character tells a journalist what he’s instructing the youths from his neighborhood: to reject prejudice and when you encounter a offender, “Punch him in the groin”. It’s funny too when the boxer fidgets at the silly stunts the coach makes him do in the early days: acting like the “beast from the East”.

Plot and Conclusion

Regarding the rift, the movie depicts this as being worsened by a revealing publication that Ingle is supposed to have written (a story element clearly modified from prior material), and there is an intriguingly conceived last discussion – however the heartfelt homage that the boxer is reportedly paid to his mentor after his death is merely referenced in the end titles, and not dramatised on screen. Some interesting material here, but the punches fail to connect.

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