The Giant Film Analysis: Prince Naseem Biopic Starring Pierce Brosnan Misses the Impact

This film features a impressive ensemble, depicting the true story of coach Brendan Ingle, who mentored a brash Yorkshire youth from Yemeni migrant family. Known as Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to confront racist bullies and transformed into a media-friendly world champion in the late 90s. The trainer cultivated his showboating confidence and powerful punches, but after becoming rich, Hamed betrayed his mentor, cutting him out and making him a blend of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Pierce Brosnan portrays Ingle; El-Masry takes on the role of the prince, and Stephens is the bullish London promoter Warren, who recognized the goldmine that Ingle had discovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

However, the film honestly misses the Prince’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences flow well, but the all-important story between them is consistently dull and monotonous. There is no subtlety or contrast in the depiction of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the chance to show any depth or much of what might make his character really interesting – although he’s obviously been training and looks very plausible in the ring.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is repeatedly lumbered with utilitarian, explanatory dialogue that inform you precisely what is going on and what we are supposed to be thinking (“Your journey began your boxing journey at seven years old …”). This is the kind of dialogue that streaming-TV executives call “second-screen”, making sure you understand what’s unfolding while you’re watching the film but also checking your phone. And, the score is overbearing, sometimes nearly deafening, especially in the scene where the boxer gets overexcited calling on Warren in his luxurious home.

Performances and Key Moments

While the leads do their very utmost, their relationship never really ignites, and the major boxing moments are frequently anticlimactically truncated. The most important moment is surely when, provoked beyond endurance in the training facility one day by Hamed as a misguided “elder”, Ingle in fact proposes to get in the ring and fight him. Everyone in the gym is stunned and uncomfortable. How exactly is this insanely unwise confrontation going to play out? How precisely the ending? Surely the Prince is going to kill him? Or will he emotionally hold back? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Highlights and Humor

This isn’t to imply that there aren’t some good moments. Brosnan gets laughs when his character tells a reporter what he’s instructing the kids from his local community: to reject bias and when you meet a offender, “Hit them in the groin”. Amusing too when the boxer squirms at the silly stunts the coach makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “monster from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

As for the falling out, the film depicts this as being worsened by a tell-all publication that the trainer is supposed to have authored (a plot point evidently modified from another source), and there is an interestingly imagined last discussion – although the heartfelt homage that the boxer is supposed to have given to Ingle after his death is only referenced in the closing credits, and not shown on screen. There is engaging content here, but the blows fail to connect.

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