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The movie features a talented cast, telling the true story of Irish boxing trainer Ingle, who guided a cheeky Sheffield teenager from Yemeni immigrant family. Dubbed “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the youngster was taught to confront prejudice and transformed into a celebrity world champion in the late 90s. Ingle cultivated his flamboyant arrogance and powerful punches, but after achieving wealth, Hamed turned against his coach, cutting him out and making him a mix of Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan plays the trainer; Amir El-Masry takes on the part of Hamed, and Stephens is the bullish London promoter Frank Warren, who saw the goldmine that Ingle had discovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

However, the movie honestly lacks the Prince’s agility: the fight scenes flow well, but the all-important story between them is repeatedly flat and monotonous. It lacks nuance or contrast in the depiction of Hamed himself, and the actor, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the chance to display any subtlety or much of what might make his character really interesting – although he’s obviously been working out and appears convincing in the ring.

Problems with Script and Sound

The drama is repeatedly burdened by utilitarian, expositional lines that inform you exactly what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“You started your boxing journey at seven years old …”). It is the sort of dialogue that streaming-TV executives call “second-screen”, making sure you know what’s unfolding while you’re viewing the movie but also checking your phone. Additionally, the score is overpowering, sometimes almost deafening, particularly in the scene where Hamed gets too excited calling on the promoter in his luxurious home.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their very utmost, their dynamic never really comes to life, and the big set-piece boxing moments are often anticlimactically cut short. The most important moment is surely when, provoked past his limit in the training facility one day by Hamed as a misguided “old man”, Ingle in fact proposes to get in the ring and box him. Everyone in the room is stunned and uneasy. In what way is this extremely unwise standoff going to play out? How precisely the ending? Surely the champion is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he emotionally hold back? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Highlights and Humor

This isn’t to imply that there are no some nice jabs. The actor gets laughs when Ingle informs a reporter what he’s instructing the youths from his neighborhood: to reject bias and when you encounter a offender, “Punch him in the groin”. Amusing too when the boxer squirms at the silly stunts Ingle makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “beast from the Middle East”.

Plot and Conclusion

Regarding the falling out, the film shows this as being worsened by a revealing book that Ingle is supposed to have written (a story element clearly modified from prior material), and there is an intriguingly imagined final conversation – however the heartfelt homage that Hamed is supposed to have given to Ingle after his death is merely referenced in the end titles, and not dramatised on film. Some interesting material here, but the blows don’t land.

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