🔗 Share this article

This film boasts a impressive ensemble, telling the true story of Irish boxing trainer Ingle, who guided a cheeky Yorkshire youth from Middle Eastern immigrant parents. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to stand up to racist bullies and molded into a celebrity titleholder in the 1990s. The trainer cultivated his flamboyant confidence and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, the boxer turned against his coach, excluding him and making him a blend of Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Brosnan portrays Ingle; El-Masry takes on the role of Hamed, and Stephens appears as the assertive London promoter Warren, who saw the potential that the coach had discovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

However, the film honestly lacks the fighter’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes flow well, but the crucial story between them is consistently dull and monotonous. There is no subtlety or contrast in the portrayal of the protagonist himself, and the actor, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the chance to display any subtlety or much of what might make his role truly engaging – although he’s obviously been training and looks very plausible in the boxing arena.

Problems with Script and Sound

The drama is repeatedly burdened by utilitarian, expositional lines that inform you precisely what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your career at age seven …”). It is the sort of script that streaming-TV producers call “double-screen”, ensuring you know what’s unfolding while you’re watching the movie but also checking your phone. Additionally, the score is overpowering, at times almost deafening, especially in the moment where the boxer gets too excited visiting Warren in his palatial home.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

Although the leads do their considerable best, their relationship doesn’t quite ignites, and the major boxing moments are often anticlimactically cut short. A key scene is surely when, goaded past his limit in the training facility one day by Hamed as a misguided “elder”, the trainer in fact proposes to get in the ring and fight him. All present in the room is stunned and uneasy. How exactly is this extremely risky standoff going to play out? What will be the outcome? Surely the champion is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he sentimentally pull his punches? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Highlights and Humor

That’s not to say that there are no some nice jabs. The actor elicits humor when his character tells a reporter what he’s instructing the youths from his local community: to oppose bias and when you meet a offender, “Punch him in the groin”. Amusing too when the boxer fidgets at the ridiculous antics the coach makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “monster from the East”.

Plot and Conclusion

Regarding the falling out, the movie shows this as being worsened by a tell-all book that Ingle is allegedly authored (a plot point clearly modified from another source), and there is an intriguingly imagined last discussion – although the emotional tribute that Hamed is supposed to have given to his mentor after his death is merely referenced in the end titles, and not shown on screen. Some interesting material in this film, but the blows fail to connect.

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