This film features a talented ensemble, depicting the real-life story of coach Ingle, who mentored a brash Sheffield teenager from Yemeni migrant family. Known as Naseem Hamed, the youngster was taught to confront prejudice and transformed into a celebrity world champion in the 1990s. The trainer nurtured his flamboyant arrogance and powerful punches, but after achieving wealth, the boxer betrayed his mentor, excluding him and making him a blend of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.
Pierce Brosnan portrays Ingle; El-Masry embodies the part of Hamed, and Stephens is the bullish London promoter Warren, who saw the potential that Ingle had discovered.
However, the movie frankly misses the Prince’s agility: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the all-important drama between them is consistently dull and one-note. It lacks subtlety or contrast in the depiction of the protagonist himself, and the actor, an otherwise outstanding performer, isn’t given the opportunity to show any subtlety or much of what might make his character really interesting – even though he’s obviously been training and appears convincing in the ring.
The story is often burdened by utilitarian, explanatory lines that tell you precisely what is going on and what we are supposed to be thinking (“You started your boxing journey at seven years old …”). It is the kind of dialogue that streaming-TV executives call “second-screen”, making sure you know what’s unfolding while you’re watching the film but also checking your device. And, the background music is overbearing, sometimes nearly deafening, especially in the moment where Hamed gets overexcited visiting Warren in his palatial residence.
While El-Masry and Brosnan do their very utmost, their relationship never really comes to life, and the major boxing moments are frequently disappointingly truncated. The most important moment is certainly when, goaded past his limit in the gym one day by Hamed as a delusional “old man”, the trainer actually proposes to get in the ring and fight him. All present in the gym is shocked and uneasy. In what way is this insanely unwise confrontation going to unfold? What will be the ending? Surely the Prince is going to defeat him? Or will he sentimentally hold back? It’s not clear.
That’s not to say that there are no some nice jabs. The actor elicits humor when Ingle tells a reporter what he’s teaching the kids from his local community: to reject prejudice and when you encounter a offender, “Hit them in the groin”. Amusing too when Hamed fidgets at the ridiculous antics Ingle makes him do in the early days: posing as the “monster from the East”.
Regarding the falling out, the film depicts this as being exacerbated by a revealing book that Ingle is allegedly written (a story element evidently adapted from prior material), and there is an intriguingly imagined final conversation – although the emotional tribute that Hamed is reportedly paid to Ingle after his passing is merely mentioned in the closing credits, and not shown on screen. Some interesting material in this film, but the blows fail to connect.
Giant was shown at the London film festival and is available in British and Irish theaters from 9 January.
