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This film boasts a talented ensemble, telling the true story of coach Ingle, who mentored a brash Sheffield teenager from Middle Eastern immigrant parents. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to confront racist bullies and molded into a celebrity titleholder in the 1990s. Ingle nurtured his flamboyant confidence and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, Hamed turned against his mentor, cutting him out and making him a mix of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Brosnan portrays the trainer; El-Masry embodies the part of Hamed, and Stephens appears as the bullish London promoter Warren, who recognized the goldmine that the coach had uncovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

However, the movie honestly lacks the Prince’s agility: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the all-important story between them is repeatedly dull and monotonous. There is no nuance or contrast in the portrayal of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the chance to show any depth or much of what might make his character truly engaging – although he’s obviously been training and looks very plausible in the ring.

Problems with Script and Sound

The drama is often lumbered with functional, explanatory dialogue that tell you exactly what is happening and what we are meant to feel (“You started your career at age seven …”). It is the sort of script that digital producers call “second-screen”, ensuring you know what’s unfolding while you’re watching the movie but also checking your device. And, the background music is overpowering, at times almost deafening, especially in the scene where the boxer gets overexcited visiting Warren in his luxurious home.

Performances and Key Moments

Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their very utmost, their dynamic doesn’t quite comes to life, and the major fight scenes are often anticlimactically truncated. A key scene is surely when, goaded beyond endurance in the gym one day by the boxer as a delusional “old man”, Ingle actually proposes to step into the ring and box him. Everyone in the gym is stunned and uneasy. In what way is this extremely risky confrontation going to play out? What will be the outcome? Certainly the champion is going to kill 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. The actor elicits humor when Ingle informs a reporter what he’s instructing the kids from his neighborhood: to oppose bias and when you encounter a paedophile, “Punch him in the bollocks”. Amusing too when Hamed squirms at the ridiculous stunts Ingle makes him do in the beginning: 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 book that Ingle is supposed to have written (a plot point evidently adapted from prior material), and there is an interestingly imagined final conversation – although the emotional tribute that the boxer is reportedly paid to Ingle after his passing is merely mentioned in the end titles, and not shown on film. Some engaging content here, but the blows fail to connect.

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