The Giant Film Analysis: Prince Naseem Biopic Featuring Brosnan Lacks the Punch

The movie features a talented cast, telling the real-life tale of coach Brendan Ingle, who mentored a cheeky Yorkshire youth from Middle Eastern migrant parents. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the youngster was coached to confront prejudice and transformed into a media-friendly titleholder in the late 90s. The trainer nurtured his flamboyant arrogance and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, the boxer turned against his mentor, excluding him and making him a blend of John Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan plays the trainer; El-Masry takes on the part of Hamed, and Stephens appears as the bullish London promoter Frank Warren, who recognized the goldmine that Ingle had uncovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

However, the film frankly lacks the fighter’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the all-important story between them is repeatedly dull and monotonous. There is no nuance or light and shade in the depiction of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, isn’t given the opportunity to show any depth or much of what might make his character really interesting – even though he’s clearly been training and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Problems with Script and Sound

The story is often lumbered with utilitarian, expositional lines that tell you exactly what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your career at age seven …”). It is the sort of dialogue that streaming-TV executives call “double-screen”, ensuring you understand what’s unfolding while you’re watching the movie but also glancing at your phone. And, the score is overpowering, sometimes almost deafening, particularly in the moment where Hamed gets overexcited visiting Warren in his palatial home.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

While the leads do their considerable utmost, their dynamic never really ignites, and the big set-piece fight scenes are frequently disappointingly cut short. A key scene is certainly when, provoked beyond endurance in the training facility one day by the boxer as a delusional “old man”, Ingle actually proposes to get in the ring and fight him. Everyone in the gym is shocked and uncomfortable. How exactly is this extremely risky standoff going to play out? What will be the ending? Certainly the Prince is going to kill 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 journalist what he’s instructing the kids from his neighborhood: to oppose prejudice and when you encounter a offender, “Hit them in the bollocks”. Amusing too when Hamed fidgets at the ridiculous stunts the coach makes him do in the beginning: acting like the “beast from the East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the falling out, the film depicts this as being exacerbated by a revealing book that Ingle is allegedly written (a plot point clearly modified from prior material), and there is an intriguingly conceived final conversation – although the emotional tribute that the boxer is reportedly paid to Ingle after his passing is only referenced in the end titles, and not dramatised on screen. Some interesting material in this film, but the blows fail to connect.

The film screened at the festival and is in UK and Irish theaters from 9 January.