The Giant Film Analysis: Prince Naseem Movie Featuring Brosnan Lacks the Impact

This film boasts a talented ensemble, telling the true tale of coach Ingle, who mentored a cheeky Yorkshire teenager from Middle Eastern migrant family. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to confront prejudice and molded into a media-friendly world champion in the 1990s. Ingle cultivated his showboating arrogance and powerful punches, but after becoming rich, the boxer turned against his mentor, excluding him and making him a mix of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Pierce Brosnan plays the trainer; Amir El-Masry takes on the role of Hamed, and Toby Stephens is the assertive London promoter Frank Warren, who saw the goldmine that Ingle had uncovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

Yet, the movie honestly misses the fighter’s agility: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the all-important story between them is consistently dull and monotonous. It lacks subtlety or light and shade in the depiction of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, isn’t given the chance to display any depth or much of what might make his character truly engaging – even though he’s clearly been training and looks very plausible in the ring.

Problems with Script and Sound

The story is repeatedly burdened by utilitarian, explanatory dialogue that inform you precisely what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your boxing journey at age seven …”). This is the sort of dialogue that streaming-TV executives call “second-screen”, making sure you understand what’s unfolding while you’re watching the movie but also glancing at your device. And, the background music is overpowering, sometimes nearly overwhelming, especially in the moment where Hamed gets too excited calling on Warren in his luxurious residence.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

While El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable utmost, their dynamic doesn’t quite comes to life, and the big set-piece fight scenes are often disappointingly cut short. The most important scene is certainly when, provoked beyond endurance in the training facility one day by Hamed as a delusional “elder”, Ingle in fact proposes to step into the ring and fight him. Everyone in the room is shocked and uneasy. In what way is this extremely unwise standoff going to unfold? How precisely the outcome? Surely the Prince is going to defeat him? Or will he emotionally hold back? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Highlights and Humor

This isn’t to imply that there are no some good moments. Brosnan gets laughs when Ingle tells a journalist what he’s teaching the youths from his neighborhood: to oppose prejudice and when you meet a offender, “Punch him in the groin”. It’s funny too when the boxer squirms at the silly stunts Ingle makes him do in the early days: acting like the “beast from the Middle East”.

Plot and Conclusion

As for the rift, the film shows this as being exacerbated by a revealing publication that the trainer is allegedly authored (a plot point clearly adapted from another source), and there is an interestingly conceived last discussion – however the emotional tribute that the boxer is supposed to have paid to his mentor after his passing is only mentioned in the closing credits, and not dramatised on screen. There is interesting material here, but the punches don’t land.

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