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The movie boasts a talented ensemble, telling the true story of Irish boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, who guided a cheeky Sheffield teenager from Middle Eastern immigrant family. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the youngster was taught to confront racist bullies and transformed into a media-friendly world champion in the 1990s. Ingle nurtured his flamboyant 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 Broadway Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Brosnan plays Ingle; El-Masry takes on the role of the prince, and Stephens appears as the bullish promoter Warren, who saw the goldmine that Ingle had discovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the movie frankly lacks the fighter’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes flow well, but the crucial story in between is consistently dull and monotonous. It lacks nuance or light and shade in the depiction of the protagonist himself, and the actor, an otherwise outstanding performer, doesn’t get the opportunity to display any depth or much of what might make his role truly engaging – even though he’s clearly been working out and appears convincing in the ring.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The drama is repeatedly lumbered with functional, explanatory dialogue that inform you exactly what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your career at seven years old …”). It is the sort of script that streaming-TV producers call “double-screen”, making sure you understand what’s going on while you’re viewing the film but also checking your device. Additionally, the background music is overbearing, sometimes almost deafening, particularly in the scene where Hamed gets too excited visiting the promoter in his luxurious home.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

While El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable utmost, their relationship never really comes to life, and the big set-piece fight scenes are frequently anticlimactically truncated. The most important moment is certainly when, provoked past his limit in the training facility one day by Hamed as a misguided “elder”, Ingle actually offers to get in the ring and fight him. All present in the gym is stunned and uneasy. How exactly is this extremely risky confrontation going to unfold? What will be the ending? Certainly the champion is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he sentimentally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Bright Spots and Comedy

That’s not to say that there are no some nice jabs. Brosnan elicits humor when Ingle informs a reporter what he’s instructing the kids from his neighborhood: to oppose bias and when you encounter a offender, “Punch him in the groin”. Amusing too when the boxer squirms at the silly antics the coach makes him do in the early days: posing as the “monster from the East”.

Plot and Conclusion

Regarding the falling out, the film depicts this as being worsened by a tell-all publication that Ingle is allegedly authored (a plot point evidently modified from another source), and there is an intriguingly imagined last discussion – however the heartfelt homage that the boxer is reportedly given to his mentor after his passing is only referenced in the closing credits, and not dramatised on screen. There is interesting material here, but the blows don’t land.

Giant screened at the London film festival and is available in British and Irish cinemas from 9 January.