The Giant Film Analysis: Naseem Hamed Movie Starring Pierce Brosnan Misses the Punch

The movie features a impressive ensemble, telling the true story of Irish boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, who guided a cheeky Sheffield teenager from Middle Eastern migrant family. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to stand up to racist bullies and transformed into a celebrity titleholder in the 1990s. The trainer nurtured his flamboyant confidence and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, Hamed turned against his mentor, excluding him and turning him into a blend of John Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Brosnan plays Ingle; El-Masry embodies the role of the prince, and Stephens is the assertive London promoter Warren, who saw the goldmine that Ingle had discovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the film honestly misses the Prince’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences flow well, but the all-important drama in between is consistently dull and one-note. There is no nuance or contrast in the portrayal of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, doesn’t get 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 ring.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is repeatedly lumbered with functional, explanatory lines that tell you exactly what is happening and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your boxing journey at seven years old …”). This is the sort of dialogue that digital producers call “double-screen”, ensuring you know what’s unfolding while you’re viewing the movie but also glancing at your phone. And, the score is overpowering, sometimes almost overwhelming, especially in the scene where the boxer gets overexcited visiting the promoter in his palatial residence.

Performances and Key Moments

While the leads do their very best, their dynamic doesn’t quite ignites, and the big set-piece fight scenes are often disappointingly cut short. A key moment is surely when, goaded past his limit in the training facility one day by the boxer as a delusional “elder”, the trainer in fact proposes to step into the ring and box him. Everyone in the room is stunned and uncomfortable. How exactly is this extremely unwise standoff going to unfold? What will be the ending? Surely the Prince is going to kill him? Alternatively will he sentimentally pull his punches? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Highlights and Humor

This isn’t to imply that there are no some good moments. Brosnan elicits humor when Ingle informs a journalist what he’s teaching the youths from his neighborhood: to reject prejudice and when you encounter a offender, “Hit them in the groin”. Amusing too when Hamed fidgets at the silly antics the coach makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “monster from the Middle East”.

Plot and Conclusion

Regarding the falling out, the film shows this as being exacerbated by a tell-all publication that the trainer is supposed to have authored (a story element clearly adapted from prior material), and there is an intriguingly conceived final conversation – although the emotional tribute that the boxer is supposed to have paid to Ingle after his death is only mentioned in the end titles, and not dramatised on screen. Some engaging content in this film, but the blows don’t land.

Giant was shown at the festival and is in UK and Irish cinemas from January 9.