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This film boasts a impressive cast, depicting the true tale of coach Brendan Ingle, who mentored a cheeky Yorkshire youth from Yemeni migrant parents. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to confront prejudice and transformed into a celebrity titleholder in the 1990s. Ingle cultivated his flamboyant arrogance and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, the boxer betrayed his mentor, excluding him and turning him into a blend of Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Brosnan portrays the trainer; Amir El-Masry embodies the part of Hamed, and Stephens appears as the bullish promoter Frank Warren, who saw the potential that Ingle had discovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

However, the film honestly lacks the fighter’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences flow well, but the all-important story in between is consistently flat and monotonous. There is no nuance or light and shade in the portrayal of the protagonist himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, isn’t given the opportunity to display any depth or much of what might make his role truly engaging – although he’s clearly been working out and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Problems with Script and Sound

The drama is often lumbered with utilitarian, explanatory dialogue that tell you precisely what is happening and what we are supposed to be thinking (“Your journey began your boxing journey at seven years old …”). This is the kind of script that digital producers call “second-screen”, ensuring you know what’s unfolding while you’re watching the film but also glancing at your device. Additionally, the background music is overbearing, at times almost overwhelming, especially in the moment where the boxer gets overexcited visiting the promoter in his luxurious residence.

Performances and Key Moments

Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their very best, their dynamic never really ignites, and the big set-piece boxing moments are often anticlimactically truncated. The most important moment is certainly when, provoked past his limit in the training facility one day by the boxer as a misguided “elder”, the trainer actually proposes to get in the ring and fight him. All present in the room is shocked and uncomfortable. How exactly is this insanely unwise confrontation going to play out? What will be the ending? Certainly the champion is going to defeat him? Alternatively 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. The actor gets laughs when his character tells a reporter what he’s instructing the kids from his local community: to reject prejudice and when you encounter a offender, “Punch him in the bollocks”. It’s funny too when Hamed squirms at the silly antics Ingle makes him do in the early days: posing as the “beast from the East”.

Plot and Conclusion

Regarding the falling out, the film shows this as being worsened by a revealing publication that the trainer is supposed to have written (a story element clearly adapted from prior material), and there is an interestingly imagined final conversation – although the emotional tribute that the boxer is supposed to have given to Ingle after his death is merely mentioned in the closing credits, and not shown on film. There is interesting material here, but the punches don’t land.

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