Amir El-Masryas Prince Naz Ahmed and Pierce Brosnan as Brendan Ingle in Giant

GIANT
Directed by Rowan Athale
Certificate: 12a
☆☆☆

PRINCE Naz Ahmed could not be ignored. Whether you love or hate the Noble Sport, his story was always intriguing.

Forget the bluster coming from his mouth about how great he was – since Ali, it is almost the default for boxers to rant about how special they are.

Naz was genuinely an amazing, unique sportsman, but for those of us who were fortunate enough to witness his rise to prominence, not only was it obvious you were watching a rare, generational talent, his back story was endearing, too.

Who couldn’t be moved by the success of the British born son of Yemeni migrants, who had settled to build a life for themselves in Sheffield, beat racism, beat the class system, and become a global name?

This bio-pic focuses on the story of his manager, Brendan Ingle (Pierce Brosnan), and how he met Naz aged seven and took him to the world title, before his help was discarded and the pair fell out.

This is a surrogate father/son yarn, with heaps of feelgood platitudes about treating people well, about giving back to your community, and about fighting racism, class barriers and predetermined routes for young people. It is, at its heart, a boxing film about what really matters in life.

We meet the young Naz (Ghaith Saleh) as he dodges racist bullies and finds a home in Ingle’s rundown gym. We then jump to Naz (played as an adult by Amir El-Masry), now a young man who has created a new way of fighting – and how the boxing world did not quite know what to make of him until master showman Frank Warren (Toby Stephens) got involved.

This is slickly produced: boxing choreography is an easy thing to get wrong cinematically. Here it is well crafted and believable, and Brosnan carries the film well.

However, throughout there is a sense that Naz is too much in the shadows. For such an amazing sportsman with such an amazing story, it would have benefited from a more character-based consideration of who he is and how his rise to global recognition came about. Stodgy scripting also detracts.

But perhaps that is too much to ask for without the real Naz’s blessing for a movie – and by telling the story of the trainer, we have a personable angle. Not quite a knock-out of a movie, but it certainly wins on points.