Giant Film Analysis: Prince Naseem Movie Starring Brosnan Misses the Impact

This film boasts a impressive ensemble, depicting the real-life tale of coach Brendan Ingle, who mentored a cheeky Sheffield youth from Yemeni immigrant parents. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to stand up to racist bullies and molded into a celebrity titleholder in the late 90s. The trainer nurtured his showboating arrogance and powerful punches, but after becoming rich, Hamed turned against his mentor, excluding him and making him a mix of Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Pierce Brosnan portrays the trainer; El-Masry takes on the part of the prince, and Stephens appears as the bullish London promoter Frank Warren, who saw the potential that the coach had uncovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

However, the movie frankly misses the Prince’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the all-important story in between is repeatedly dull and one-note. It lacks subtlety or light and shade in the portrayal of Hamed himself, and the actor, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the opportunity to show any subtlety or much of what might make his character really interesting – although he’s obviously been working out and looks very plausible in the boxing arena.

Problems with Script and Sound

The story is often lumbered with functional, expositional lines that tell you precisely what is going on and what we are supposed to be thinking (“You started your boxing journey at age seven …”). This is the sort of script that digital producers call “second-screen”, ensuring you understand what’s unfolding while you’re watching the movie but also checking your device. And, the background music is overpowering, at times nearly deafening, especially in the moment where the boxer gets overexcited visiting Warren in his luxurious residence.

Performances and Key Moments

While the leads do their very best, their dynamic doesn’t quite comes to life, and the big set-piece boxing moments are often disappointingly cut short. The most important scene is surely when, provoked past his limit in the training facility one day by the boxer as a misguided “old man”, the trainer in fact offers to get in the ring and box him. All present in the room is stunned and uncomfortable. How exactly is this insanely unwise confrontation 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.

Bright Spots and Comedy

This isn’t to imply that there aren’t some good moments. Brosnan elicits humor when his character informs a reporter what he’s instructing the youths from his local community: to oppose prejudice and when you meet a paedophile, “Hit them in the bollocks”. It’s funny too when the boxer fidgets at the silly antics the coach makes him do in the early days: posing as the “beast from the Middle East”.

Plot and Conclusion

Regarding the falling out, the movie depicts this as being exacerbated by a tell-all publication that Ingle is allegedly written (a story element evidently modified from prior material), and there is an interestingly conceived last discussion – although the heartfelt homage that the boxer is reportedly paid to Ingle after his passing is merely mentioned in the closing credits, and not dramatised on screen. There is engaging content here, but the blows don’t land.

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