Giant Review: Naseem Hamed Biopic Featuring Brosnan Lacks the Punch

The movie features a impressive cast, telling the real-life story of coach Ingle, who guided a cheeky Sheffield teenager from Yemeni immigrant parents. Dubbed “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the youngster was taught to stand up to prejudice and molded into a media-friendly world champion in the 1990s. Ingle cultivated his flamboyant arrogance and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, Hamed turned against his coach, cutting him out and turning him into a blend of Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Brosnan plays Ingle; Amir El-Masry takes on the role of the prince, and Stephens appears as the assertive London promoter Frank Warren, who saw the goldmine that Ingle had uncovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the movie frankly lacks the fighter’s agility: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the crucial story in between is consistently dull and one-note. There is no subtlety or contrast in the depiction of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, isn’t given the chance to display any depth or much of what might make his role really interesting – although he’s clearly been training and appears convincing in the ring.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is repeatedly burdened by utilitarian, expositional dialogue that inform you exactly what is happening and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your career at age seven …”). It is the kind of dialogue that digital executives call “double-screen”, ensuring you understand what’s going on while you’re viewing the film but also checking your device. And, the score is overbearing, sometimes almost overwhelming, especially in the scene where the boxer gets overexcited calling on Warren in his luxurious residence.

Performances and Key Moments

While the leads do their very utmost, their dynamic never really comes to life, and the major fight scenes are frequently disappointingly cut short. The most important scene is surely when, goaded past his limit in the gym one day by the boxer as a misguided “old man”, the trainer in fact proposes to step into the ring and fight him. All present in the room is shocked and uneasy. How exactly is this insanely unwise standoff going to play out? What will be the outcome? Certainly the champion is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he emotionally hold back? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Bright Spots and Comedy

That’s not to say that there aren’t some nice jabs. Brosnan elicits humor when Ingle informs a journalist what he’s teaching the youths from his local community: to oppose prejudice and when you encounter a paedophile, “Hit them in the bollocks”. Amusing too when the boxer fidgets at the ridiculous stunts Ingle makes him do in the early days: posing as the “beast from the Middle East”.

Plot and Conclusion

As for the falling out, the film shows this as being worsened by a revealing publication that Ingle is allegedly written (a plot point evidently modified from prior material), and there is an interestingly imagined final conversation – although the emotional tribute that the boxer is supposed to have given to his mentor after his passing is merely mentioned in the closing credits, and not dramatised on screen. Some interesting material in this film, but the blows fail to connect.

Giant screened at the London film festival and is in UK and Irish theaters from 9 January.