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The movie features a talented cast, depicting the true story of Irish boxing trainer Ingle, who mentored a brash Yorkshire teenager from Yemeni migrant parents. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to stand up to prejudice and transformed into a media-friendly world champion in the 1990s. The trainer nurtured his flamboyant arrogance and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, Hamed betrayed his mentor, excluding him and making him a blend of Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Brosnan plays Ingle; Amir El-Masry embodies the part of the prince, and Stephens is the bullish London promoter Frank Warren, who recognized the potential that Ingle had discovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

Yet, the film honestly misses the Prince’s agility: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the crucial drama in between is repeatedly dull and monotonous. There is no subtlety or light and shade in the depiction of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, isn’t given the opportunity to show any depth or much of what might make his role really interesting – although he’s obviously been training and appears convincing in the ring.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is repeatedly burdened by utilitarian, expositional dialogue that inform you exactly what is happening and what we are supposed to be thinking (“Your journey began your career at seven years old …”). This is the sort of dialogue that streaming-TV producers call “second-screen”, ensuring you understand what’s going on while you’re watching the movie but also glancing at your device. Additionally, the background music is overpowering, at times almost overwhelming, particularly in the scene where Hamed gets too excited visiting Warren in his luxurious home.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable utmost, their dynamic doesn’t quite comes to life, and the big set-piece boxing moments are often anticlimactically truncated. The most important moment is certainly when, provoked past his limit in the training facility one day by Hamed as a delusional “old man”, the trainer actually offers to get in the ring and fight him. Everyone in the gym is stunned and uneasy. How exactly is this insanely risky standoff going to unfold? How precisely the outcome? Certainly the Prince is going to kill him? Or will he emotionally hold back? It’s not clear.

Highlights and Humor

That’s not to say that there aren’t some good moments. The actor gets laughs when his character informs a reporter what he’s instructing the youths from his neighborhood: to reject prejudice and when you encounter a offender, “Punch him in the groin”. It’s funny too when the boxer fidgets at the silly antics the coach makes him do in the early days: acting like the “monster from the East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the rift, the movie shows this as being exacerbated by a tell-all publication that the trainer is allegedly written (a plot point clearly adapted from another source), and there is an intriguingly conceived last discussion – however the emotional tribute that the boxer is reportedly paid to Ingle after his death is merely referenced in the closing credits, and not shown on screen. There is interesting material here, but the blows don’t land.

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