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The movie boasts a talented ensemble, depicting the real-life story of Irish boxing trainer Ingle, who mentored a brash Yorkshire teenager from Yemeni migrant family. Known as Naseem Hamed, the youngster was taught to confront racist bullies and transformed into a celebrity titleholder in the 1990s. The trainer nurtured his flamboyant confidence and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, the boxer betrayed his mentor, cutting him out and turning him into a blend of Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Pierce Brosnan plays the trainer; Amir El-Masry embodies the part of the prince, and Toby Stephens appears as the assertive promoter Warren, who recognized the potential that Ingle had uncovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the film frankly misses the Prince’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the crucial drama between them is repeatedly flat and one-note. It lacks nuance or contrast in the portrayal of Hamed himself, and the actor, an otherwise outstanding performer, isn’t given the chance to display any subtlety or much of what might make his character really interesting – even though he’s clearly been training and appears convincing in the ring.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is repeatedly lumbered with utilitarian, expositional dialogue that inform you exactly what is going on and what we are supposed to be thinking (“Your journey began your boxing journey at age seven …”). This is the sort of dialogue that digital producers call “double-screen”, ensuring you understand what’s going on while you’re watching the film but also checking your phone. And, the score is overbearing, at times nearly overwhelming, especially in the moment where the boxer gets overexcited visiting the promoter in his palatial residence.

Performances and Key Moments

While the leads do their considerable utmost, their dynamic doesn’t quite comes to life, and the major boxing moments are frequently anticlimactically truncated. A key moment is surely when, provoked past his limit in the gym one day by the boxer as a misguided “elder”, Ingle actually proposes to step into the ring and box him. Everyone in the gym is shocked and uncomfortable. In what way is this insanely risky standoff going to play out? How precisely the ending? Certainly the champion is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he sentimentally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Highlights and Humor

This isn’t to imply that there are no some good moments. The actor elicits humor when Ingle informs a reporter what he’s instructing the youths from his local community: to oppose bias 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 early days: posing as the “monster from the East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

As for the rift, the film depicts this as being exacerbated by a revealing publication that the trainer is supposed to have written (a story element clearly adapted from prior material), and there is an intriguingly imagined final conversation – although the heartfelt homage that the boxer is reportedly given to his mentor after his death is merely referenced in the closing credits, and not dramatised on screen. Some engaging content in this film, but the blows don’t land.

Giant screened at the festival and is available in British and Irish theaters from 9 January.