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This film features a impressive ensemble, depicting the real-life tale of coach Brendan Ingle, who guided a cheeky Yorkshire teenager from Yemeni immigrant parents. Dubbed “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to stand up to prejudice and molded into a celebrity titleholder in the late 90s. The trainer nurtured his flamboyant arrogance and powerful punches, but after achieving wealth, Hamed betrayed his mentor, cutting him out and turning him into a mix of John Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Brosnan plays Ingle; El-Masry takes on the role of Hamed, and Stephens appears as the bullish London promoter Warren, who saw the potential that Ingle had uncovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

Yet, the film honestly misses the Prince’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the crucial story in between is repeatedly flat and monotonous. It lacks subtlety or contrast in the portrayal of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the chance to display any depth or much of what might make his role truly engaging – even though he’s clearly been working out and appears convincing in the ring.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The drama is repeatedly lumbered with functional, expositional lines that inform you exactly what is happening and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your career at age seven …”). This is the sort of dialogue that streaming-TV executives call “double-screen”, making sure you understand what’s unfolding while you’re watching the movie but also checking 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 ignites, and the big set-piece fight scenes are often disappointingly truncated. A key moment is surely when, goaded beyond endurance in the training facility one day by the boxer as a misguided “old man”, Ingle in fact offers to get in the ring and box him. All present in the gym is shocked and uneasy. How exactly is this insanely unwise confrontation going to play out? How precisely the ending? Surely the Prince is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he emotionally pull his punches? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Bright Spots and Comedy

This isn’t to imply that there aren’t some nice jabs. The actor elicits humor when his character informs a journalist what he’s instructing the youths from his local community: to reject bias and when you encounter a offender, “Punch him in the groin”. Amusing too when Hamed fidgets at the ridiculous antics Ingle makes him do in the beginning: acting like the “beast from the Middle East”.

Plot and Conclusion

As for the falling out, the movie depicts this as being exacerbated by a revealing book that the trainer is supposed to have written (a story element evidently modified from another source), and there is an interestingly conceived last discussion – however the heartfelt homage that Hamed is supposed to have given to Ingle after his death is merely referenced in the closing credits, and not dramatised on screen. Some engaging content in this film, but the blows don’t land.

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