The movie features a talented cast, depicting the real-life tale of coach Ingle, who mentored a brash Sheffield teenager from Yemeni migrant family. Dubbed “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to stand up to racist bullies and molded into a media-friendly world champion in the late 90s. The trainer nurtured his flamboyant arrogance and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, the boxer betrayed his mentor, excluding him and making him a blend of John Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.
Cast and Characters
Brosnan plays Ingle; Amir El-Masry embodies the role of Hamed, and Toby Stephens is the assertive promoter Warren, who saw the potential that Ingle had discovered.
Where the Movie Falls Short
However, the film honestly lacks the fighter’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the crucial story in between is repeatedly flat and monotonous. There is no subtlety or contrast in the depiction of the protagonist himself, and the actor, an otherwise outstanding performer, doesn’t get the opportunity to display any depth or much of what might make his character really interesting – even though he’s clearly been working out and appears convincing in the ring.
Dialogue and Music Issues
The story is repeatedly lumbered with functional, expositional dialogue that tell you exactly what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your boxing journey at seven years old …”). It is the sort of script that digital producers call “second-screen”, making sure you understand what’s unfolding while you’re watching the movie but also checking your device. And, the score is overpowering, at times nearly deafening, particularly in the moment where the boxer gets overexcited visiting the promoter in his palatial home.
Performances and Key Moments
Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable best, their relationship doesn’t quite comes to life, and the big set-piece fight scenes are often anticlimactically truncated. The most important moment is certainly when, provoked past his limit in the training facility one day by Hamed as a misguided “old man”, Ingle in fact proposes to step into the ring and box him. All present in the room is stunned and uneasy. In what way is this extremely unwise confrontation going to unfold? How precisely the outcome? Surely the Prince is going to kill him? Alternatively will he emotionally pull his punches? The resolution remains ambiguous.
Bright Spots and Comedy
This isn’t to imply that there are no some nice jabs. Brosnan gets laughs when Ingle informs a journalist what he’s instructing the youths from his neighborhood: to oppose prejudice and when you meet a offender, “Hit them in the bollocks”. Amusing too when Hamed squirms at the silly stunts Ingle makes him do in the beginning: acting like the “beast from the East”.
Storyline and Final Thoughts
Regarding the falling out, the movie depicts this as being worsened by a tell-all book that the trainer is allegedly authored (a plot point evidently adapted from prior material), and there is an intriguingly conceived final conversation – although the heartfelt homage that Hamed is supposed to have paid to his mentor after his passing is only mentioned in the closing credits, and not dramatised on film. There is engaging content in this film, but the blows don’t land.
Giant was shown at the London film festival and is in British and Irish theaters from January 9.
