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

The movie features a talented cast, depicting the true tale of coach Ingle, who guided a cheeky Yorkshire youth from Yemeni migrant parents. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the youngster was taught to stand up to racist bullies and molded into a media-friendly titleholder in the late 90s. The trainer cultivated his showboating confidence and lethal fists, but after achieving wealth, the boxer betrayed his coach, excluding him and making him a mix of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan plays Ingle; Amir El-Masry takes on the role of Hamed, and Stephens is the assertive promoter Frank Warren, who recognized the potential that the coach had discovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

Yet, the film frankly misses the Prince’s agility: the fight scenes flow well, but the all-important drama in between is repeatedly flat and one-note. It lacks subtlety or light and shade in the portrayal of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, doesn’t get the chance to show any depth or much of what might make his character really interesting – although he’s clearly been training and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is often lumbered with functional, expositional dialogue that tell you exactly what is happening and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your career at seven years old …”). It is the sort of script that streaming-TV executives call “double-screen”, ensuring you understand what’s going on while you’re watching the movie but also glancing at your phone. Additionally, the score is overbearing, at times nearly deafening, particularly in the scene where Hamed gets overexcited calling on the promoter in his palatial home.

Performances and Key Moments

While El-Masry and Brosnan do their very utmost, their relationship never really comes to life, and the big set-piece boxing moments are often anticlimactically truncated. A key moment is surely when, provoked past his limit in the gym one day by the boxer as a delusional “elder”, the trainer actually offers to step into the ring and box him. All present in the room is stunned and uneasy. How exactly is this insanely unwise standoff going to unfold? What will be the outcome? Certainly the Prince is going to defeat him? Or will he sentimentally hold back? It’s not clear.

Highlights and Humor

That’s not to say that there aren’t some good moments. Brosnan elicits humor when his character tells a journalist what he’s instructing the youths from his local community: to oppose bias and when you encounter a paedophile, “Punch him in the bollocks”. Amusing too when Hamed fidgets at the ridiculous stunts the coach makes him do in the beginning: acting like the “monster from the Middle East”.

Plot and Conclusion

As for the rift, the film depicts this as being exacerbated by a tell-all publication that the trainer is allegedly authored (a story element clearly modified from prior material), and there is an intriguingly conceived last discussion – although the heartfelt homage that Hamed is supposed to have given to Ingle after his death is merely referenced in the closing credits, and not shown on screen. Some interesting material in this film, but the punches fail to connect.

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