🔗 Share this article Giant Film Analysis: Prince Naseem Biopic Featuring Brosnan Lacks the Punch This film features a talented ensemble, depicting the true story of Irish boxing trainer Ingle, who mentored a brash Yorkshire youth from Yemeni immigrant parents. Dubbed “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to stand up to prejudice and molded into a celebrity world champion in the 1990s. The trainer cultivated his showboating arrogance and powerful punches, but after achieving wealth, Hamed turned against his mentor, excluding him and turning him into a blend of Falstaff and Danny Rose. Cast and Characters Pierce Brosnan plays the trainer; El-Masry embodies the part of Hamed, and Stephens appears as the assertive promoter Frank Warren, who saw the goldmine that Ingle had uncovered. Where the Movie Falls Short However, the film honestly misses the fighter’s agility: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the crucial story in between is repeatedly dull and monotonous. It lacks nuance or contrast in the portrayal of the protagonist himself, and the actor, an otherwise outstanding performer, isn’t given the opportunity to show any depth or much of what might make his role truly engaging – although he’s clearly been working out and appears convincing in the ring. Dialogue and Music Issues The story is often burdened by utilitarian, expositional dialogue that inform 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 digital executives call “double-screen”, ensuring you know what’s unfolding while you’re watching the movie but also glancing at your phone. Additionally, the background music is overpowering, sometimes nearly deafening, especially in the moment where the boxer gets overexcited calling on Warren in his palatial home. Performances and Key Moments Although the leads do their very best, their dynamic never really comes to life, and the big set-piece fight scenes are frequently anticlimactically truncated. A key moment is surely when, provoked past his limit in the gym one day by the boxer as a delusional “old man”, the trainer in fact proposes to step into the ring and box him. Everyone in the room is stunned and uncomfortable. In what way is this insanely unwise standoff going to play out? How precisely the ending? Certainly the Prince is going to kill him? Alternatively will he sentimentally hold back? The resolution remains ambiguous. Highlights and Humor That’s not to say that there aren’t some good moments. Brosnan elicits humor when Ingle informs a journalist what he’s teaching the youths from his neighborhood: to reject prejudice and when you encounter a paedophile, “Punch him in the bollocks”. It’s funny too when Hamed fidgets at the silly antics Ingle makes him do in the beginning: acting like the “beast from the Middle East”. Storyline and Final Thoughts Regarding the rift, the film depicts this as being worsened by a revealing publication that the trainer is allegedly authored (a story element clearly adapted from another source), and there is an interestingly imagined last discussion – however the heartfelt homage that Hamed is reportedly given to his mentor after his death is merely mentioned in the end titles, and not dramatised on film. There is engaging content here, but the blows fail to connect. The film was shown at the London film festival and is available in UK and Irish theaters from 9 January.