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

This film boasts a impressive ensemble, telling the real-life tale of Irish boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, who guided a brash Sheffield youth from Middle Eastern immigrant parents. Known as Naseem Hamed, the youngster was taught to confront racist bullies and molded into a celebrity world champion in the late 90s. Ingle nurtured his flamboyant arrogance and powerful punches, but after becoming rich, the boxer betrayed his coach, excluding him and turning him into a blend of John Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Pierce Brosnan portrays Ingle; El-Masry takes on the role of Hamed, and Stephens appears as the bullish promoter Frank Warren, who saw the goldmine that Ingle had discovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

However, the movie honestly lacks the fighter’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the crucial drama between them is consistently flat and one-note. It lacks subtlety or light and shade in the portrayal of the protagonist himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, isn’t given the chance to display any depth or much of what might make his role really interesting – even though he’s obviously been training and appears convincing in the ring.

Problems with Script and Sound

The story is often burdened by utilitarian, explanatory dialogue that tell you precisely what is going on and what we are supposed to be thinking (“You started your boxing journey at seven years old …”). It is the kind of script that digital producers call “second-screen”, ensuring you know what’s unfolding while you’re watching the movie but also checking your device. Additionally, the background music is overbearing, at times almost deafening, especially in the scene where the boxer gets too excited visiting Warren in his palatial residence.

Performances and Key Moments

While the leads do their very best, their relationship never really comes to life, and the major fight scenes are frequently disappointingly truncated. The most important moment is certainly when, provoked beyond endurance in the training facility one day by Hamed as a delusional “old man”, the trainer in fact offers to get in the ring and fight him. All present in the gym is stunned and uncomfortable. How exactly is this extremely unwise standoff going to play out? How precisely the ending? Certainly the Prince is going to defeat him? Or will he emotionally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Highlights and Humor

This isn’t to imply that there aren’t some good moments. Brosnan gets laughs when his character tells a journalist what he’s instructing the youths from his local community: to oppose bias and when you encounter a paedophile, “Hit them in the groin”. Amusing too when Hamed squirms at the silly stunts the coach makes him do in the beginning: acting like the “monster from the East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the falling out, the movie depicts this as being worsened by a tell-all book that the trainer is allegedly written (a plot point evidently adapted from prior material), and there is an intriguingly conceived final conversation – although the heartfelt homage that Hamed is reportedly paid to Ingle after his death is merely mentioned in the closing credits, and not shown on film. Some interesting material here, but the punches fail to connect.

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