The Giant Film Analysis: Naseem Hamed Biopic Featuring Brosnan Lacks the Punch

This film features a talented cast, telling the real-life tale of Irish boxing trainer Ingle, who mentored a brash Yorkshire teenager from Middle Eastern migrant parents. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the youngster was coached to stand up to prejudice and transformed into a media-friendly titleholder in the 1990s. Ingle cultivated his showboating confidence and lethal fists, but after achieving wealth, the boxer turned against his coach, excluding him and turning him into a mix of John Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Pierce Brosnan plays Ingle; Amir El-Masry takes on the role of Hamed, and Stephens appears as the bullish promoter Warren, who saw the potential that the coach had uncovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

Yet, the movie honestly misses the fighter’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the all-important drama between them is consistently flat and monotonous. There is no nuance or contrast in the portrayal of the protagonist himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, isn’t given the opportunity to show any depth or much of what might make his character truly engaging – although he’s clearly been training and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The drama is often burdened by utilitarian, explanatory dialogue that tell you precisely what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your career at age seven …”). It is the kind of script that streaming-TV executives call “double-screen”, ensuring you understand what’s going on while you’re viewing the film but also glancing at your device. Additionally, the score is overpowering, sometimes almost deafening, particularly in the scene where the boxer gets overexcited visiting Warren in his palatial home.

Performances and Key Moments

Although the leads do their very utmost, their dynamic doesn’t quite ignites, and the big set-piece fight scenes are frequently disappointingly cut short. A key scene is surely when, goaded beyond endurance in the training facility one day by the boxer as a misguided “old man”, the trainer in fact offers to step into the ring and fight him. Everyone in the gym is shocked and uncomfortable. In what way is this extremely risky confrontation going to play out? What will be the ending? Surely the champion is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he sentimentally hold back? It’s not clear.

Bright Spots and Comedy

That’s not to say that there aren’t some nice jabs. Brosnan gets laughs when Ingle tells a reporter what he’s instructing the youths from his neighborhood: to reject bias and when you encounter a paedophile, “Punch him in the groin”. It’s funny too when the boxer fidgets at the ridiculous stunts the coach makes him do in the early days: acting like the “beast from the East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

As for the falling out, the film depicts this as being worsened by a revealing book that Ingle is supposed to have written (a story element clearly adapted from prior material), and there is an intriguingly conceived final conversation – although the heartfelt homage that Hamed is reportedly paid to his mentor after his death is only referenced in the end titles, and not dramatised on screen. Some engaging content in this film, but the punches fail to connect.

Giant screened at the London film festival and is available in British and Irish cinemas from January 9.