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The movie boasts a impressive cast, telling the true tale of coach Ingle, who guided a brash Sheffield teenager from Yemeni migrant family. Known as Naseem Hamed, the youngster was taught to confront prejudice and molded into a celebrity titleholder in the late 90s. The trainer cultivated his showboating arrogance and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, the boxer turned against his mentor, cutting him out and turning him into a blend of Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Brosnan plays the trainer; El-Masry embodies the part of the prince, and Stephens appears as the bullish London promoter Frank Warren, who saw the goldmine that Ingle had uncovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

However, the movie frankly misses the fighter’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences flow well, but the all-important story in between is repeatedly dull and one-note. It lacks nuance or light and shade in the depiction of the protagonist himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, isn’t given the chance to show any subtlety or much of what might make his character truly engaging – although he’s obviously been training and looks very plausible in the boxing arena.

Problems with Script and Sound

The story is often burdened by utilitarian, expositional dialogue that tell you precisely what is going on and what we are supposed to be thinking (“Your journey began your career at age seven …”). It is the sort of script that digital producers call “double-screen”, making sure you understand what’s unfolding while you’re viewing the film but also glancing at your device. Additionally, the score is overpowering, sometimes almost overwhelming, particularly in the moment where Hamed gets overexcited visiting the promoter in his luxurious residence.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their very best, their relationship never really ignites, and the major fight scenes are frequently anticlimactically cut short. The most important moment is surely when, provoked past his limit in the training facility one day by Hamed as a misguided “old man”, Ingle in fact offers to step into the ring and box him. Everyone in the gym is stunned and uncomfortable. How exactly is this insanely unwise confrontation going to play out? What will be the outcome? Surely the Prince is going to kill him? Or will he sentimentally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Highlights and Humor

That’s not to say that there aren’t some nice jabs. Brosnan gets laughs when Ingle tells a journalist what he’s instructing the youths from his neighborhood: to oppose prejudice and when you encounter a paedophile, “Hit them in the groin”. Amusing too when the boxer squirms at the silly stunts Ingle makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “monster from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

As for the rift, the movie shows this as being exacerbated by a revealing book that the trainer is supposed to have authored (a plot point clearly modified from prior material), and there is an intriguingly conceived last discussion – however the emotional tribute that Hamed is supposed to have given to Ingle after his passing is merely mentioned in the end titles, and not dramatised on film. There is engaging content here, but the blows don’t land.

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