Giant Film Analysis: Naseem Hamed Movie Featuring Brosnan Lacks the Punch

This film features a talented cast, telling the real-life story of Irish boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, who guided a cheeky Sheffield teenager from Middle Eastern migrant family. Known as Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to confront racist bullies and molded into a media-friendly titleholder in the late 90s. Ingle nurtured his showboating confidence and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, Hamed turned against his coach, cutting him out and turning him into a mix of John Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

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

Where the Movie Falls Short

Yet, the movie frankly misses the Prince’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the all-important drama between them is repeatedly dull and monotonous. It lacks subtlety or contrast in the depiction of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the chance to display any subtlety or much of what might make his role really interesting – even though he’s obviously been working out and looks very plausible in the ring.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is repeatedly burdened by functional, expositional lines that tell you exactly what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“You started your boxing journey at seven years old …”). This is the sort of dialogue that streaming-TV producers call “double-screen”, making sure you understand what’s unfolding while you’re watching the film but also checking your phone. Additionally, the score is overbearing, sometimes nearly overwhelming, particularly in the scene where the boxer gets too excited calling on Warren in his luxurious home.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

While El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable best, their relationship doesn’t quite ignites, and the big set-piece fight scenes are often disappointingly cut short. A key moment is surely when, goaded beyond endurance in the gym one day by Hamed as a misguided “old man”, the trainer in fact proposes to get in the ring and fight him. All present in the gym is shocked and uneasy. How exactly is this insanely unwise confrontation going to play out? How precisely the outcome? Surely the champion is going to kill him? Alternatively will he sentimentally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Bright Spots and Comedy

This isn’t to imply that there are no some nice jabs. The actor elicits humor when his character tells a reporter what he’s teaching the kids from his local community: to reject prejudice and when you encounter a offender, “Punch him in the bollocks”. Amusing too when Hamed fidgets at the silly antics the coach makes him do in the beginning: acting like the “beast from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the rift, the movie depicts this as being exacerbated by a revealing book that the trainer is allegedly written (a plot point clearly adapted from prior material), and there is an interestingly conceived final conversation – although the emotional tribute that the boxer is reportedly given to his mentor after his death is merely referenced in the end titles, and not dramatised on film. There is interesting material here, but the punches fail to connect.

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