Giant Film Analysis: Naseem Hamed Movie Starring Pierce Brosnan Misses the Impact

This film features a talented cast, telling the true story of coach Ingle, who guided a brash Yorkshire youth from Yemeni immigrant parents. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the youngster was taught to confront racist bullies and transformed into a media-friendly titleholder in the late 90s. Ingle nurtured his flamboyant confidence and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, Hamed betrayed his coach, cutting him out and making him a blend of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Brosnan plays Ingle; El-Masry embodies the part of Hamed, and Stephens is the assertive promoter Frank Warren, who saw the goldmine that the coach had discovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

However, the film honestly misses the Prince’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes flow well, but the all-important story in between is repeatedly dull and monotonous. There is no subtlety or light and shade in the portrayal of the protagonist himself, and the actor, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the chance to display any subtlety or much of what might make his character really interesting – although he’s obviously been training and looks very plausible in the ring.

Problems with Script and Sound

The story is often lumbered with functional, explanatory lines that inform you precisely 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 script that digital executives call “double-screen”, ensuring you know what’s unfolding while you’re viewing the movie but also glancing at your phone. And, the score is overbearing, at times nearly overwhelming, particularly in the scene where Hamed gets overexcited calling on Warren in his palatial home.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their very best, their dynamic never really ignites, and the big set-piece fight scenes are often anticlimactically truncated. The most important scene is surely when, provoked beyond endurance in the gym one day by Hamed as a misguided “old man”, Ingle actually proposes to step into the ring and box him. All present in the room 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 sentimentally hold back? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Highlights and Humor

This isn’t to imply that there are no some nice jabs. Brosnan gets laughs when his character tells a reporter what he’s teaching the kids from his neighborhood: to reject bias and when you meet a paedophile, “Punch him in the groin”. It’s funny too when the boxer fidgets at the silly stunts Ingle makes him do in the early days: acting like the “monster from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

As for the falling out, the movie depicts this as being worsened by a revealing publication that Ingle is supposed to have written (a story element clearly adapted from prior material), and there is an intriguingly conceived last discussion – although the emotional tribute that the boxer is supposed to have given to Ingle after his death is merely referenced in the end titles, and not dramatised on screen. Some interesting material in this film, but the punches fail to connect.

The film screened at the London film festival and is in British and Irish theaters from 9 January.