Giant Film Analysis: Prince Naseem Movie Featuring Brosnan Lacks the Punch
The movie features a talented ensemble, telling the real-life tale of coach Ingle, who guided a cheeky Yorkshire teenager from Middle Eastern migrant family. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the youngster was coached to stand up to prejudice and transformed into a celebrity world champion in the late 90s. Ingle nurtured his flamboyant confidence and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, the boxer betrayed his coach, cutting him out and making him a mix of John Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.
Performers and Roles
Brosnan plays Ingle; Amir El-Masry embodies the role of the prince, and Stephens is the assertive London promoter Frank Warren, who recognized the potential that Ingle had discovered.
Where the Movie Falls Short
However, the film frankly lacks the fighter’s agility: the boxing sequences flow well, but the all-important drama between them is consistently flat and monotonous. There is no subtlety or contrast in the depiction of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the chance to display any subtlety or much of what might make his character truly engaging – even though he’s clearly been working out and appears convincing in the ring.
Problems with Script and Sound
The drama is often burdened by functional, expositional dialogue that inform you precisely what is happening and what we are meant to feel (“You started your career at seven years old …”). It is the sort of dialogue that streaming-TV producers call “second-screen”, making sure you know what’s going on while you’re watching the film but also glancing at your phone. And, the background music is overpowering, sometimes almost deafening, particularly in the moment where Hamed gets too excited calling on Warren in his palatial home.
Acting and Pivotal Scenes
Although the leads do their considerable utmost, their dynamic doesn’t quite comes to life, and the major fight scenes are often anticlimactically truncated. A key moment is certainly when, goaded past his limit in the training facility one day by Hamed as a misguided “old man”, the trainer actually proposes to get in the ring and box him. Everyone in the room is shocked and uneasy. In what way is this insanely unwise confrontation going to unfold? What will be the ending? Surely the Prince is going to kill him? Or will he sentimentally pull his punches? It’s not clear.
Highlights and Humor
That’s not to say that there aren’t some good moments. Brosnan gets laughs when Ingle informs a reporter what he’s teaching the kids from his neighborhood: to oppose bias and when you meet a paedophile, “Hit them in the bollocks”. Amusing too when the boxer fidgets at the silly antics the coach makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “beast from the Middle East”.
Storyline and Final Thoughts
As for the falling out, the movie shows this as being worsened by a tell-all book that the trainer is supposed to have authored (a story element evidently modified from another source), and there is an intriguingly imagined last discussion – although the emotional tribute that the boxer is supposed to have given to his mentor after his passing is merely mentioned in the end titles, and not shown on screen. There is interesting material in this film, but the blows don’t land.
The film was shown at the London film festival and is available in UK and Irish cinemas from January 9.