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The movie features a impressive ensemble, depicting the real-life tale of coach Ingle, who mentored a brash Yorkshire teenager from Middle Eastern migrant parents. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to stand up to prejudice and molded into a media-friendly world champion in the late 90s. The trainer cultivated his showboating confidence and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, Hamed turned against his mentor, cutting him out and making him a blend of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Brosnan plays Ingle; Amir El-Masry takes on the part of Hamed, and Toby Stephens is the bullish promoter Frank Warren, who recognized the potential that Ingle had discovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

Yet, the film frankly lacks the Prince’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes flow well, but the all-important drama in between is repeatedly flat and monotonous. It lacks nuance or light and shade in the depiction of Hamed himself, and the actor, an otherwise outstanding performer, doesn’t get the chance to display any subtlety or much of what might make his character truly engaging – even though he’s clearly been training and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Problems with Script and Sound

The drama is often lumbered with functional, expositional dialogue that tell you precisely what is happening and what we are meant to feel (“You started your career at age seven …”). This is the sort of dialogue that digital executives call “double-screen”, making sure you know what’s going on while you’re viewing the movie but also glancing at your phone. Additionally, the background music is overpowering, sometimes almost overwhelming, particularly in the scene where Hamed gets overexcited visiting the promoter in his luxurious residence.

Performances and Key Moments

Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable utmost, their relationship never really comes to life, and the big set-piece boxing moments are frequently disappointingly truncated. A key scene is certainly when, provoked past his limit in the gym one day by Hamed as a misguided “elder”, the trainer in fact proposes to step into the ring and fight him. All present in the gym is shocked and uncomfortable. In what way is this extremely unwise standoff going to unfold? What will be the outcome? Certainly the champion is going to defeat him? Or will he emotionally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Bright Spots and Comedy

This isn’t to imply that there are no some good moments. The actor gets laughs when Ingle tells a reporter what he’s instructing the kids from his neighborhood: to reject bias and when you encounter a offender, “Hit them in the bollocks”. Amusing too when Hamed fidgets at the silly antics 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 exacerbated by a revealing book that the trainer is supposed to have written (a plot point evidently modified from prior material), and there is an interestingly imagined last discussion – although the heartfelt homage that the boxer is supposed to have paid to Ingle after his death is only referenced in the end titles, and not dramatised on film. Some interesting material here, but the blows fail to connect.

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