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This film features a talented ensemble, telling the real-life tale of coach Brendan Ingle, who mentored a cheeky Yorkshire youth from Yemeni immigrant parents. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to stand up to prejudice and molded into a celebrity world champion in the late 90s. The trainer cultivated his flamboyant arrogance and powerful punches, but after becoming rich, the boxer betrayed his coach, excluding him and making him a blend of John Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan plays Ingle; El-Masry takes on the role of the prince, and Stephens is the assertive London promoter Frank Warren, who saw the goldmine that the coach had discovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the film honestly misses the fighter’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the all-important story between them is consistently dull and one-note. There is no nuance or contrast in the depiction of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, isn’t given the chance to show any subtlety or much of what might make his character truly engaging – although he’s clearly been training and looks very plausible in the ring.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The drama is repeatedly burdened by functional, expositional lines that inform you precisely what is happening and what we are meant to feel (“You started your career at age seven …”). This is the kind of script that digital executives call “double-screen”, ensuring you know what’s going on while you’re viewing the movie but also checking your device. Additionally, the background music is overpowering, at times almost deafening, especially in the scene where the boxer gets overexcited calling on Warren in his palatial home.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their very utmost, their relationship never really comes to life, and the big set-piece fight scenes are frequently disappointingly cut short. A key moment is surely when, goaded beyond endurance in the gym one day by the boxer as a delusional “elder”, the trainer actually proposes to step into the ring and fight him. All present in the gym is shocked and uneasy. How exactly is this extremely unwise confrontation going to play out? What will be the ending? Certainly the champion is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he sentimentally hold back? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Bright Spots and Comedy

That’s not to say that there aren’t some nice jabs. The actor elicits humor when his character informs a reporter what he’s instructing the kids from his neighborhood: to reject bias and when you meet a offender, “Punch him in the groin”. It’s funny too when Hamed squirms at the silly stunts Ingle makes him do in the early days: posing as the “beast from the East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

As for the falling out, the film shows this as being worsened by a tell-all publication that the trainer is allegedly written (a plot point clearly adapted from prior material), and there is an interestingly conceived final conversation – although the heartfelt homage that the boxer is reportedly given to Ingle after his passing is merely referenced in the closing credits, and not dramatised on screen. There is interesting material here, but the punches fail to connect.

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