Giant film review: Pierce Brosnan grips in this underrated boxing drama
Giant film review with Pierce Brosnan, world premiere at the London Film Festival: ★★★★
Speculation about Pierce Brosnan returning to James Bond seems less outrageous after watching Giant, in which the 72-year-old plays variously-aged versions of the same boxing trainer. In the younger scenes, with flat cap pulled down and pouting like a champ, squint and you could see it: 007’s briefly popped to Sheffield.
Brosnan’s character of Brendan Ingle certainly carries Bond’s childhood trauma, even if we don’t quite work out why he’s so obsessed with chasing validation. The former 007 actor commands in a performance that conveys Ingle’s complexity, both his kindness and swollen ego, as the trainer dedicates his career to finessing Prince Naseem’s talent, a working class boxer who was the first British Muslim to become World Champion. Naseem and Ingle fell out over money and, in 2018 when Ingle died, Naseem wrote a heartbroken post on social media about how they never reconciled.
Giant film: writer-director Athale avoids sentimentality in Pierce Brosnan sports drama
Giant isn’t too sentimental to its subject, presenting Naseem the showboater that is truthful to history. Without being too diplomatic, Naseem became a bit of a dick, goading audiences and opponents, and writer-director Rowan Athale gives us plenty of the uncomfy bits. Egyptian-British actor Amir El-Masry is fantastic as professional-age Naseem; you’re cheering him on at one minute and fearful of him the next when he starts backchatting Ingle when the pair’s relationship frays.
After all, this was the ‘90s, when being a dickhead was cool, and Toby Stephens – who last starred with Pierce Brosnan in his final Bond outing, 2002’s Die Another Day – puts in an impeccable supporting performance as terrifically unwoke promoter Frank Warren. He wants Naseem photographed with girls spread across fast cars on the cover of FHM. Stephens, who is Maggie Smith’s son, is acting aristocracy, so of course he can put on the best, most affected Cockney accent. Naseem and Ingle are both ultimately decent men with significant flaws, so it’s refreshing to have some straight-up comic relief in the form of Warren who is a straightforwardly one-note Lad with a capital L. Bring more of Toby Stephens, film commissioners: he’s great but fairly underexposed.
Athale’s plot is occasionally too neat, but not so much that Giant couldn’t compete with the other great boxing films of late. Oh, and you’re missing a cast-iron reason to watch: Brosnan spars in the ring with a man more than a third his age. Who was it that mentioned that Bond return?
The Giant film is in cinemas 9 January