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

This film boasts a impressive cast, telling the real-life story of Irish boxing trainer Ingle, who mentored a brash Yorkshire youth from Middle Eastern immigrant family. Known as Naseem Hamed, the youngster was taught to confront prejudice and molded into a media-friendly titleholder in the late 90s. Ingle nurtured his showboating confidence and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, the boxer turned against his mentor, excluding him and making him a blend of John Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Pierce Brosnan portrays the trainer; El-Masry embodies the role of Hamed, and Toby Stephens is the bullish London promoter Frank Warren, who saw the goldmine that Ingle had uncovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the film honestly misses the Prince’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences flow well, but the crucial story between them is consistently dull and one-note. It lacks nuance or contrast in the depiction of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the opportunity to display any subtlety or much of what might make his character truly engaging – although he’s clearly been working out and appears convincing in the ring.

Problems with Script and Sound

The story is often burdened by utilitarian, explanatory dialogue that inform you exactly what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“You started your boxing journey at age seven …”). It is the kind of script that digital producers call “second-screen”, ensuring you understand what’s unfolding while you’re viewing the movie but also checking your phone. Additionally, the score is overbearing, sometimes almost overwhelming, particularly in the moment where the boxer gets too excited calling on the promoter in his luxurious residence.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

While the leads do their considerable best, their relationship never really ignites, and the major fight scenes are frequently disappointingly truncated. The most important scene is certainly when, goaded past his limit in the gym one day by Hamed as a misguided “old man”, Ingle in fact proposes to get in the ring and fight him. Everyone in the room is shocked and uneasy. In what way is this insanely risky confrontation going to play out? How precisely the outcome? Certainly the champion is going to defeat him? Or will he emotionally pull his punches? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Bright Spots and Comedy

This isn’t to imply that there aren’t some good moments. The actor elicits humor when Ingle tells a journalist what he’s teaching the youths from his neighborhood: to oppose prejudice and when you meet a offender, “Punch him in the groin”. It’s funny too when the boxer squirms at the ridiculous antics the coach makes him do in the early days: acting like the “beast from the East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

As for the rift, the movie shows this as being worsened by a revealing publication that the trainer is allegedly written (a story element clearly modified from another source), and there is an intriguingly conceived final conversation – however the emotional tribute that the boxer is reportedly paid to his mentor after his death is merely mentioned in the end titles, and not shown on film. There is interesting material in this film, but the punches fail to connect.

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