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The movie features a impressive cast, telling the real-life story of Irish boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, who guided a cheeky Sheffield youth from Middle Eastern immigrant parents. Dubbed “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to confront prejudice and molded into a celebrity world champion in the late 90s. The trainer nurtured his flamboyant arrogance and lethal fists, but after achieving wealth, Hamed betrayed his mentor, excluding him and turning him into a mix of John Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Brosnan portrays the trainer; El-Masry takes on the part of Hamed, and Toby Stephens is the assertive London promoter Frank Warren, who saw the goldmine that the coach had uncovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the film honestly misses the Prince’s agility: the fight scenes flow well, but the crucial drama in between is consistently flat and monotonous. It lacks nuance or light and shade in the depiction of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, doesn’t get the chance to display any subtlety or much of what might make his character really interesting – even though he’s clearly been working out and looks very plausible in the boxing arena.

Problems with Script and Sound

The drama is often lumbered with utilitarian, explanatory dialogue that inform you precisely what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your boxing journey at age seven …”). It is the sort of script that digital executives call “double-screen”, making sure you know what’s going on while you’re watching the film but also glancing at your phone. Additionally, the score is overbearing, sometimes nearly overwhelming, particularly in the scene where Hamed gets overexcited visiting Warren in his luxurious home.

Performances and Key Moments

While El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable best, their dynamic doesn’t quite ignites, and the big set-piece boxing moments are often anticlimactically truncated. The most important scene is certainly when, provoked beyond endurance in the gym one day by Hamed as a delusional “old man”, Ingle actually proposes to get in the ring and fight him. Everyone in the room is shocked and uncomfortable. In what way is this insanely unwise standoff going to unfold? What will be the ending? Certainly the champion is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he sentimentally hold back? It’s not clear.

Highlights and Humor

This isn’t to imply that there aren’t some nice jabs. Brosnan gets laughs when his character informs a reporter what he’s instructing the youths from his local community: to reject bias and when you encounter a offender, “Punch him in the bollocks”. It’s funny too when Hamed fidgets at the silly stunts Ingle makes him do in the early days: acting like the “beast from the East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

As for the rift, the film shows this as being worsened by a revealing publication that the trainer is supposed to have written (a story element evidently modified from another source), and there is an intriguingly conceived last discussion – although the heartfelt homage that the boxer is supposed to have given to his mentor after his death is only mentioned in the end titles, and not shown on screen. There is interesting material here, but the punches don’t land.

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