Giant Film Analysis: Naseem Hamed Movie Featuring Pierce Brosnan Misses the Impact
This film features a talented ensemble, telling the real-life tale of coach Brendan Ingle, who guided a cheeky Yorkshire teenager from Yemeni migrant parents. Dubbed “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 cultivated his flamboyant confidence and powerful punches, but after achieving wealth, the boxer betrayed his mentor, cutting him out and turning him into a blend of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.
Cast and Characters
Brosnan plays the trainer; El-Masry embodies the role of the prince, and Toby Stephens is the bullish London promoter Warren, who saw the goldmine that Ingle had uncovered.
Film’s Shortcomings
However, the movie frankly misses the fighter’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the all-important story in between is consistently flat and one-note. It lacks nuance or light and shade in the depiction of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, isn’t given the chance to show any depth or much of what might make his character really interesting – even though he’s obviously been training and looks very plausible in the boxing arena.
Dialogue and Music Issues
The story is often lumbered with functional, expositional dialogue that tell you exactly what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your career at age seven …”). It is the kind of dialogue that streaming-TV producers call “second-screen”, ensuring you understand what’s going on while you’re watching the film but also glancing at your phone. And, the score is overpowering, at times almost overwhelming, particularly in the moment where Hamed gets overexcited calling on Warren in his luxurious home.
Acting and Pivotal Scenes
Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their very utmost, their relationship doesn’t quite comes to life, and the big set-piece boxing moments are frequently anticlimactically cut short. A key scene is certainly when, goaded beyond endurance in the training facility one day by the boxer as a misguided “old man”, the trainer actually offers to step into the ring and fight him. Everyone in the gym is shocked and uneasy. How exactly is this extremely unwise standoff going to unfold? How precisely the outcome? Certainly the Prince is going to kill him? Or will he sentimentally hold back? It’s not clear.
Bright Spots and Comedy
That’s not to say that there aren’t some good moments. The actor gets laughs when his character informs a journalist what he’s instructing the kids from his local community: to reject prejudice and when you meet a offender, “Punch him in the groin”. It’s funny too when Hamed fidgets at the ridiculous stunts the coach makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “beast from the Middle East”.
Storyline and Final Thoughts
As for the rift, the film shows this as being worsened by a tell-all publication that Ingle is allegedly authored (a story element clearly adapted from prior material), and there is an interestingly conceived last discussion – however the heartfelt homage that the boxer is reportedly given to his mentor after his death is merely referenced in the end titles, and not dramatised on screen. Some interesting material here, but the punches fail to connect.
The film was shown at the festival and is available in British and Irish theaters from 9 January.