Giant Film Analysis: Naseem Hamed Movie Starring Pierce Brosnan Lacks the Impact

This film boasts a talented cast, depicting the real-life tale of Irish boxing trainer Ingle, who guided a brash Yorkshire youth from Middle Eastern immigrant parents. Dubbed “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to confront racist bullies and transformed into a celebrity titleholder in the late 90s. Ingle nurtured his flamboyant arrogance and powerful punches, but after becoming rich, the boxer betrayed his mentor, cutting him out and making him a mix of John Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Brosnan plays the trainer; El-Masry embodies the part of the prince, and Toby Stephens appears as the bullish promoter Warren, who saw the potential that Ingle had discovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

However, the film honestly misses the Prince’s agility: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the all-important story between them is repeatedly flat and one-note. There is no nuance or contrast in the depiction of Hamed himself, and the actor, an otherwise excellent talent, isn’t given the chance to show any subtlety or much of what might make his character truly engaging – although he’s clearly been working out and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The drama is often lumbered with functional, expositional lines that tell you exactly what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your boxing journey at age seven …”). It is the sort of script that streaming-TV executives call “double-screen”, ensuring you know what’s going on while you’re watching the movie but also checking your device. And, the background music is overbearing, at times almost overwhelming, particularly in the moment where Hamed gets overexcited visiting the promoter in his palatial home.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

Although the leads do their considerable utmost, their relationship never really ignites, and the big set-piece boxing moments are often anticlimactically truncated. The most important moment is certainly when, provoked beyond endurance in the gym one day by Hamed as a misguided “old man”, the trainer in fact offers to step into the ring and fight him. All present in the gym is shocked and uncomfortable. How exactly is this insanely risky standoff going to unfold? How precisely the ending? Surely the Prince is going to defeat him? Or will he emotionally hold back? It’s not clear.

Highlights and Humor

That’s not to say that there are no some nice jabs. Brosnan gets laughs when his character informs a journalist what he’s teaching the youths from his neighborhood: to reject bias and when you encounter a paedophile, “Hit them 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”.

Plot and Conclusion

Regarding the falling out, the film depicts this as being exacerbated by a tell-all publication that the trainer is allegedly written (a story element evidently modified from another source), and there is an intriguingly conceived last discussion – although the heartfelt homage that the boxer is supposed to have paid to his mentor after his death is only mentioned in the closing credits, and not dramatised on film. Some interesting material in this film, but the punches fail to connect.

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