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This film boasts a talented cast, depicting the true story of Irish boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, who guided a cheeky Yorkshire teenager from Middle Eastern migrant family. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to confront prejudice and molded into a media-friendly world champion in the late 90s. The trainer nurtured his flamboyant arrogance and powerful punches, but after becoming rich, Hamed betrayed his coach, excluding him and making him a blend of John Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Brosnan plays the trainer; Amir El-Masry takes on the role of Hamed, and Stephens is the bullish promoter Warren, who saw the goldmine that Ingle had uncovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the film frankly misses the fighter’s agility: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the crucial drama between them is repeatedly flat and one-note. There is no subtlety or contrast in the portrayal of Hamed himself, and the actor, an otherwise outstanding performer, doesn’t get the chance to show any depth or much of what might make his role truly engaging – even though he’s obviously been training and appears convincing in the ring.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is repeatedly burdened by functional, expositional lines that tell you precisely what is going on and what we are supposed to be thinking (“You started your boxing journey at age seven …”). It is the kind of dialogue that streaming-TV executives call “double-screen”, ensuring you know what’s going on while you’re watching the movie but also glancing at your phone. Additionally, the score is overpowering, at times nearly overwhelming, particularly in the moment where Hamed gets overexcited calling on Warren in his luxurious home.

Performances and Key Moments

While the leads do their very utmost, their relationship never really ignites, and the big set-piece fight scenes are often anticlimactically truncated. The most important scene is surely when, provoked past his limit in the gym one day by Hamed as a misguided “old man”, Ingle in fact proposes to step into the ring and fight him. Everyone in the gym is stunned and uneasy. How exactly is this insanely risky standoff going to play out? How precisely the outcome? Surely the champion is going to kill him? Or will he sentimentally pull his punches? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Highlights and Humor

This isn’t to imply that there are no some nice jabs. Brosnan elicits humor when Ingle tells a reporter what he’s instructing the kids from his local community: to oppose bias and when you meet a offender, “Punch him in the bollocks”. It’s funny too when Hamed fidgets at the ridiculous antics Ingle makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “beast from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

As for the falling out, the movie depicts this as being worsened by a revealing publication that the trainer is supposed to have written (a story element clearly modified from prior material), and there is an intriguingly imagined final conversation – although the emotional tribute that Hamed is supposed to have paid to Ingle after his death is only referenced in the end titles, and not shown on film. There is engaging content in this film, but the punches don’t land.

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