Giant Review: Naseem Hamed Movie Featuring Pierce Brosnan Misses the Punch
The movie boasts a talented ensemble, depicting the real-life tale of coach Ingle, who mentored a cheeky Yorkshire teenager from Middle Eastern migrant parents. Dubbed “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the youngster was coached to stand up to prejudice and molded into a celebrity world champion in the 1990s. The trainer cultivated his flamboyant arrogance and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, Hamed betrayed his coach, cutting him out and turning him into a mix of Falstaff and Danny Rose.
Cast and Characters
Pierce Brosnan plays the trainer; Amir El-Masry takes on the role of the prince, and Toby Stephens is the assertive promoter Warren, who saw the potential that Ingle had uncovered.
Where the Movie Falls Short
Yet, the film frankly misses the Prince’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the all-important drama between them is repeatedly dull and one-note. It lacks nuance or contrast in the portrayal of the protagonist himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the opportunity to display any depth or much of what might make his character really interesting – even though he’s obviously been training and appears convincing in the ring.
Dialogue and Music Issues
The story is often burdened by functional, expositional lines that tell you exactly what is going on and what we are supposed to be thinking (“Your journey began your career at seven years old …”). This is the kind of script that streaming-TV executives call “double-screen”, ensuring you know what’s going on while you’re watching the movie but also glancing at your phone. Additionally, the score is overbearing, sometimes nearly deafening, especially in the moment where the boxer gets too excited visiting Warren in his luxurious home.
Performances and Key Moments
Although the leads do their considerable best, their relationship never really comes to life, and the big set-piece boxing moments are often disappointingly truncated. A key scene is certainly when, provoked past his limit in the gym one day by Hamed as a delusional “old man”, the trainer actually offers to get in the ring and box him. All present in the gym is shocked and uneasy. How exactly is this insanely unwise standoff going to play out? How precisely the outcome? Surely the Prince is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he sentimentally pull his punches? The resolution remains ambiguous.
Highlights and Humor
That’s not to say that there are no some good moments. The actor gets laughs when Ingle tells a journalist what he’s instructing the youths from his local community: to reject prejudice and when you meet a paedophile, “Hit them in the groin”. Amusing too when Hamed fidgets at the silly stunts the coach makes him do in the early days: acting like the “monster from the Middle East”.
Storyline and Final Thoughts
Regarding the falling out, the film shows this as being exacerbated by a tell-all publication that the trainer is allegedly authored (a story element evidently modified from prior material), and there is an intriguingly imagined final conversation – although the emotional tribute that the boxer is reportedly paid to Ingle after his passing is only referenced in the end titles, and not shown on film. There is engaging content in this film, but the punches fail to connect.
Giant was shown at the London film festival and is available in British and Irish theaters from January 9.
