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The movie features a talented cast, telling the real-life story of coach Brendan Ingle, who guided a cheeky Yorkshire teenager from Yemeni migrant family. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the youngster was taught to stand up to racist bullies and transformed into a media-friendly titleholder in the late 90s. Ingle nurtured his showboating arrogance and powerful punches, but after achieving wealth, the boxer betrayed his mentor, excluding him and making him a mix of Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Pierce Brosnan portrays the trainer; Amir El-Masry embodies the role of the prince, and Stephens is the assertive promoter Warren, who saw the potential that the coach had discovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

Yet, the film frankly misses the Prince’s agility: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the crucial story in between is consistently dull and monotonous. There is no subtlety or light and shade in the depiction of the protagonist himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, doesn’t get the chance to show any subtlety or much of what might make his role really interesting – although he’s clearly been working out and looks very plausible in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The drama is repeatedly burdened by functional, expositional dialogue that tell you exactly what is going on and what we are supposed to be thinking (“You started your career at seven years old …”). This is the kind of dialogue that streaming-TV executives call “double-screen”, ensuring you know what’s unfolding while you’re watching the movie but also glancing at your device. And, the score is overbearing, at times almost deafening, especially in the scene where the boxer gets overexcited calling on Warren in his luxurious home.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable utmost, their relationship doesn’t quite ignites, and the major fight scenes are often anticlimactically truncated. The most important moment is certainly when, provoked beyond endurance in the gym one day by the boxer as a misguided “elder”, the trainer actually proposes to step into the ring and fight him. All present in the gym is stunned and uneasy. In what way is this extremely unwise standoff going to play out? How precisely the outcome? Certainly the Prince is going to kill him? Or will he sentimentally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Bright Spots and Comedy

This isn’t to imply that there are no some good moments. Brosnan elicits humor when Ingle tells a journalist what he’s teaching the kids from his neighborhood: to oppose prejudice and when you encounter a paedophile, “Punch him in the groin”. Amusing too when Hamed squirms at the ridiculous stunts the coach makes him do in the early days: posing as the “monster from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

As for the falling out, the movie depicts this as being exacerbated by a tell-all publication that the trainer is allegedly authored (a story element clearly modified from another source), and there is an intriguingly imagined final conversation – although the heartfelt homage that the boxer is reportedly given to Ingle after his death is merely referenced in the closing credits, and not dramatised on film. Some interesting material here, but the blows fail to connect.

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