The Giant Review: Prince Naseem Biopic Featuring Pierce Brosnan Misses the Punch

This film boasts a talented ensemble, telling the real-life tale of coach Brendan Ingle, who guided a brash Yorkshire youth from Middle Eastern immigrant parents. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to confront prejudice and transformed into a celebrity world champion in the 1990s. Ingle cultivated his showboating confidence and lethal fists, but after achieving wealth, the boxer betrayed his mentor, cutting him out and making him a mix of John Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Pierce Brosnan plays the trainer; Amir El-Masry embodies the part of Hamed, and Stephens is the assertive London promoter Warren, who saw the goldmine that the coach had discovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

Yet, the movie honestly misses the fighter’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences flow well, but the crucial drama in between is consistently flat and one-note. There is no subtlety or light and shade in the depiction of the protagonist himself, and the actor, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the opportunity to show any subtlety or much of what might make his character truly engaging – even though he’s obviously been training and looks very plausible in the boxing arena.

Problems with Script and Sound

The drama is repeatedly lumbered with utilitarian, expositional dialogue that tell you precisely what is happening and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your boxing journey at age seven …”). This is the sort of script that streaming-TV producers call “double-screen”, ensuring you understand what’s unfolding while you’re watching the movie but also checking your phone. And, the score is overpowering, at times nearly deafening, especially in the moment where Hamed gets too excited calling on Warren in his palatial residence.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their very best, their dynamic doesn’t quite ignites, and the major fight scenes are often anticlimactically truncated. The most important scene is surely when, goaded past his limit in the gym one day by the boxer as a delusional “elder”, the trainer actually offers to step into the ring and box him. All present in the room is stunned and uncomfortable. How exactly is this insanely risky confrontation going to play out? What will be the outcome? Surely the Prince is going to kill him? Or will he emotionally pull his punches? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Bright Spots and Comedy

That’s not to say that there aren’t some nice jabs. Brosnan elicits humor when Ingle tells a journalist what he’s teaching the kids from his local community: to reject prejudice and when you meet a paedophile, “Punch him in the groin”. Amusing too when Hamed fidgets at the silly stunts Ingle makes him do in the early days: posing as the “beast from the East”.

Plot and Conclusion

As for the falling out, the movie shows this as being exacerbated by a tell-all publication that the trainer is supposed to have written (a plot point clearly modified from another source), and there is an interestingly imagined last discussion – however the emotional tribute that Hamed is supposed to have given to Ingle after his passing is only referenced in the closing credits, and not shown on film. There is interesting material here, but the blows don’t land.

The film was shown at the London film festival and is in British and Irish theaters from January 9.