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The movie boasts a impressive cast, telling the real-life tale of coach Brendan Ingle, who guided a brash Sheffield youth from Middle Eastern immigrant parents. Known as Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to confront prejudice and molded into a media-friendly world champion in the late 90s. The trainer nurtured his flamboyant confidence and powerful punches, but after achieving wealth, Hamed betrayed his coach, excluding him and making him a blend of John Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan plays Ingle; El-Masry embodies the role of Hamed, and Toby Stephens is the bullish London promoter Warren, who saw the potential that the coach had discovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

Yet, the film honestly misses the Prince’s agility: the boxing sequences flow well, but the crucial story between them is consistently dull and one-note. There is no nuance or contrast in the depiction of the protagonist himself, and the actor, an otherwise outstanding performer, isn’t given the chance to display any subtlety or much of what might make his character really interesting – although he’s clearly been training and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is often lumbered with utilitarian, explanatory dialogue that inform you precisely what is happening and what we are supposed to be thinking (“You started your boxing journey at seven years old …”). This is the kind of script that streaming-TV producers call “second-screen”, making sure you understand what’s going on while you’re viewing the movie but also checking your device. And, the score is overpowering, at times almost deafening, especially in the moment where the boxer gets overexcited calling on Warren in his luxurious home.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

While the leads do their considerable best, their relationship doesn’t quite ignites, and the major fight scenes are frequently anticlimactically cut short. A key moment is certainly when, provoked past his limit in the training facility one day by the boxer as a misguided “old man”, the trainer in fact proposes to get in the ring and fight him. All present in the gym is stunned and uncomfortable. How exactly is this insanely unwise standoff going to unfold? What will be the ending? Certainly the Prince is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he sentimentally hold back? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Bright Spots and Comedy

That’s not to say that there aren’t some good moments. Brosnan elicits humor when Ingle tells a reporter what he’s teaching the kids from his neighborhood: to reject bias and when you encounter a paedophile, “Punch him in the groin”. Amusing too when the boxer squirms at the silly stunts the coach makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “monster from the East”.

Plot and Conclusion

Regarding the rift, the film depicts this as being exacerbated by a tell-all publication that Ingle is supposed to have authored (a plot point evidently adapted from another source), and there is an intriguingly imagined final conversation – however the emotional tribute that the boxer is reportedly paid to his mentor after his death is only referenced in the closing credits, and not dramatised on screen. There is interesting material in this film, but the punches fail to connect.

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