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This film features a talented ensemble, depicting the true story of Irish boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, who guided a brash Yorkshire teenager from Middle Eastern migrant parents. Dubbed “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the youngster was coached to stand up to racist bullies and transformed into a celebrity titleholder in the 1990s. Ingle cultivated his showboating arrogance and powerful punches, but after becoming rich, Hamed betrayed his coach, cutting him out and turning him into a mix of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Pierce Brosnan plays the trainer; Amir El-Masry embodies the part of Hamed, and Toby Stephens is the assertive London promoter Warren, who saw the goldmine that the coach had uncovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

Yet, the movie honestly lacks the fighter’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the crucial story in between is consistently flat and one-note. It lacks subtlety or contrast in the portrayal of the protagonist himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, isn’t given the chance to show any subtlety or much of what might make his role truly engaging – although he’s obviously been training and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The drama is repeatedly burdened by functional, explanatory lines that inform you exactly what is happening and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your boxing journey at seven years old …”). This is the sort of script that streaming-TV executives call “second-screen”, making sure you know what’s going on while you’re watching the movie but also glancing at your phone. Additionally, the score is overpowering, sometimes nearly deafening, especially in the moment where the boxer gets too excited calling on Warren in his palatial home.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

While El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable utmost, their relationship never really ignites, and the big set-piece fight scenes are often anticlimactically cut short. A key moment is surely when, provoked past his limit in the gym one day by the boxer as a misguided “elder”, Ingle in fact offers to get in the ring and box him. All present in the gym is shocked and uncomfortable. In what way is this extremely risky confrontation going to play out? How precisely the outcome? Surely the Prince is going to defeat him? Or will he emotionally pull his punches? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Bright Spots and Comedy

That’s not to say that there are no some nice jabs. Brosnan elicits humor when Ingle tells a reporter what he’s teaching the youths from his local community: to reject prejudice and when you encounter a offender, “Punch him in the bollocks”. It’s funny too when Hamed fidgets at the ridiculous stunts the coach makes him do in the early days: acting like the “monster from the Middle East”.

Plot and Conclusion

As for the rift, the film shows this as being exacerbated by a tell-all book that the trainer is supposed to have authored (a plot point clearly adapted from prior material), and there is an interestingly conceived final conversation – although the heartfelt homage that Hamed is reportedly given to his mentor after his death is only mentioned in the end titles, and not dramatised on film. Some interesting material here, but the punches fail to connect.

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