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The movie boasts a impressive cast, depicting the true tale of coach Brendan Ingle, who guided a brash Yorkshire teenager from Yemeni immigrant family. Known as Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to confront racist bullies and transformed into a media-friendly titleholder in the 1990s. The trainer cultivated his showboating confidence and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, the boxer turned against his coach, excluding him and making him a blend of Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Pierce Brosnan portrays the trainer; El-Masry takes on the role of Hamed, and Stephens appears as the bullish promoter Warren, who recognized the goldmine that the coach had discovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

Yet, the movie honestly lacks the Prince’s agility: the boxing sequences flow well, but the crucial story in between is consistently dull and one-note. It lacks subtlety or contrast in the depiction of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the opportunity to show any subtlety or much of what might make his role truly engaging – even though he’s clearly been training and appears convincing in the ring.

Problems with Script and Sound

The drama is often lumbered with functional, explanatory dialogue that inform you exactly what is going on and what we are supposed to be thinking (“You started your career at seven years old …”). This is the kind of script that streaming-TV producers call “second-screen”, making sure you know what’s going on while you’re watching the movie but also checking your device. Additionally, the background music is overpowering, sometimes nearly overwhelming, especially in the moment where Hamed gets overexcited visiting Warren in his palatial home.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

While the leads do their considerable utmost, their relationship doesn’t quite ignites, and the major fight scenes are often anticlimactically truncated. A key scene is certainly when, goaded past his limit in the gym one day by the boxer as a delusional “elder”, Ingle actually proposes to get in the ring and fight him. All present in the gym is shocked and uncomfortable. In what way is this extremely risky standoff going to unfold? How precisely the ending? Surely the champion is going to kill him? Or will he sentimentally hold back? It’s not clear.

Bright Spots and Comedy

That’s not to say that there aren’t some good moments. Brosnan gets laughs when his character tells a reporter what he’s teaching the youths from his neighborhood: to reject bias and when you encounter a paedophile, “Punch him in the bollocks”. Amusing too when the boxer fidgets at the ridiculous stunts Ingle makes him do in the early days: posing as the “beast from the East”.

Plot and Conclusion

Regarding the falling out, the movie depicts this as being exacerbated by a tell-all book that the trainer is supposed to have authored (a story element evidently adapted from prior material), and there is an intriguingly imagined last discussion – although the heartfelt homage that Hamed is reportedly given to his mentor after his death is only mentioned in the closing credits, and not dramatised on screen. There is interesting material here, but the punches don’t land.

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