This film boasts a impressive cast, depicting the real-life story of coach Brendan Ingle, who mentored a cheeky Yorkshire teenager from Yemeni immigrant parents. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the youngster was coached to confront prejudice and molded into a media-friendly world champion in the late 90s. Ingle cultivated his showboating confidence and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, the boxer turned against his coach, excluding him and turning him into a mix of John Falstaff and Danny Rose.
Pierce Brosnan plays the trainer; El-Masry takes on the part of Hamed, and Toby Stephens appears as the bullish promoter Frank Warren, who recognized the goldmine that Ingle had discovered.
Yet, the film honestly misses the Prince’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the all-important story between them is repeatedly dull and one-note. It lacks nuance or contrast in the depiction of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, isn’t given the chance to show any subtlety or much of what might make his role truly engaging – although he’s clearly been working out and appears convincing in the boxing arena.
The drama is often burdened by utilitarian, explanatory dialogue that inform you precisely what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your boxing journey at seven years old …”). This is the sort of script that digital executives call “second-screen”, ensuring you know what’s going on while you’re viewing the film but also checking your device. Additionally, the score is overpowering, at times nearly deafening, particularly in the scene where the boxer gets too excited calling on the promoter in his luxurious residence.
Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable best, their dynamic doesn’t quite ignites, and the major fight scenes are often disappointingly truncated. A key moment is surely when, goaded past his limit in the gym one day by the boxer as a delusional “elder”, the trainer actually proposes to get in the ring and fight him. Everyone in the room is stunned and uncomfortable. In what way is this extremely unwise standoff going to unfold? What will be the outcome? Certainly the Prince is going to kill him? Alternatively will he sentimentally pull his punches? It’s not clear.
That’s not to say that there are no some good moments. The actor elicits humor when his character informs a reporter what he’s instructing the kids from his local community: to reject prejudice and when you encounter a offender, “Punch him in the bollocks”. Amusing too when the boxer squirms at the silly antics the coach makes him do in the early days: acting like the “beast from the East”.
As for the rift, the movie shows this as being exacerbated by a revealing publication that Ingle is allegedly authored (a story element clearly modified from prior material), and there is an interestingly imagined final conversation – although the emotional tribute that Hamed is reportedly paid to his mentor after his passing is only referenced in the closing credits, and not dramatised on film. There is interesting material here, but the blows don’t land.
Giant screened at the London film festival and is available in British and Irish cinemas from 9 January.
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