Giant – Review

Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 50 minutes, Director – Rowan Athale

‘Prince’ Naseem Hamed (Amir El-Masry) rises from matches in front of racist club audiences in 80s Britain to world champion boxing, however over time rifts form with his trainer, Brendan Ingle (Pierce Brosnan).

“Same story, different actors” says Alma Ingle (Katherine Dow Blyton) as she notices the rift already forming between her boxing coach husband, Brendan (Pierce Brosnan), and his latest prodigy ‘Prince’ Naseem Hamed (Amir El-Masry). Having trained together since Naz was seven the bond the pair once had appears to be fading as the boxer gets further into the professional world. The observation of a familiar story is certainly one that I agreed with as the markings that make up Giant’s story felt just so while watching it.

Instead of focusing on El-Masry’s character much of the film is told through the eyes of his trainer. Brendan consistently pushes his past as a boxer, although how successful he was seems to be overstated, and starts to ask for a bigger cut of the winnings from the man he made as skilful as he is, in line with what other trainers ask for. It’s this that truly kicks off the arguments between the pair. Yet, around these moments the film seems to switch perspectives between the two leads. Whether this is meant to be largely one person’s film or both starts to tangle as who we’re meant to feel empathy for and who the ‘bad guy’ is meant to be constantly flip-flops. The tone suggests that at least one person must be, but just who that is never feels solid due to that figure changing in line with the viewpoint we’re seeing things from.

When focusing on Brendan the film certainly feels most confident. There’s a slightly more relaxed tone that sits more comfortably in line with the figure, despite Naz having the potential for more dramatic weight as he grows up fighting in northern English clubs of the 80s for racist audiences – scenes which provide a number of grating child performances – growing to fight for world champion titles; where we finally get El-Masry conveying the arrogance ingrained in the boxer. Brosnan gives a good performance and tries to bring a layer of warmth to the conventional beats of the script and the more unsubtle moments.

The boxing sequences are intentionally flashy, but this comes at a cost as they’re edited and shot in a way that tries to put the action front-and-centre but removes its effect from cutting at each moment so that an attempt at a punch suddenly appears to have been nowhere near the opponent, or the action is simply made more jumpy and difficult to follow. A particularly issue when Naz’s dance-like footwork is said to be his greatest skill, providing his abilities with a strong fluidity which the edits stop from coming across.

As things move on, and the rift truly comes more to the fore in what turns out to be the third act, character is clearly at the front of Giant’s mind. While occasionally things might conflict when it comes to perspective there’s still a film that does a solid enough job here. One that works, and manages to have a good handful of engaging moments; helped along by small beats of humour, in fact a good amount more than I would have expected going in. It helps to bring a bit more pace to some of the slower scenes, largely because of the blend of familiarity and uncertainty when it comes to how characters are supposed to be viewed.

There’s a good film in Giant, and one that for the most part, despite its bumps, passes by fairly well. However, with a good deal of stumbles it doesn’t make for the smoothest of rides. Occasionally feeling like two biopics about the same events that have been melded together both of them are decent enough, but they can start to spar with each other for control of the frame. Meaning that the character drama at hand doesn’t always get the room it perhaps should have to properly breathe. There’s some space allowed by the elements of familiarity, but not enough for the film to properly move around.

With two perspectives uncertainly conflicting, while watchable and having some likable moments of character drama thanks to the two lead performances, Giant feels held back by its style and editing from properly landing a punch.