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The movie features a impressive ensemble, depicting the real-life story of Irish boxing trainer Ingle, who mentored a brash Sheffield teenager from Middle Eastern immigrant parents. Dubbed “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the youngster was coached to stand up to racist bullies and transformed into a celebrity world champion in the late 90s. The trainer nurtured his showboating arrogance and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, the boxer betrayed his mentor, cutting him out and making him a mix of Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan portrays the trainer; Amir El-Masry takes on the role of Hamed, and Toby Stephens appears as the assertive promoter Warren, who recognized the potential that Ingle had uncovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

Yet, the film honestly misses the fighter’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes flow well, but the all-important drama between them is repeatedly flat and one-note. It lacks nuance or light and shade in the portrayal of the protagonist himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, doesn’t get the chance to display any depth or much of what might make his role really interesting – even though he’s obviously been working out and looks very plausible in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The drama is often lumbered with functional, expositional dialogue that inform you exactly what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“You started your career at seven years old …”). This is the sort of script that streaming-TV executives call “second-screen”, making sure you understand what’s unfolding while you’re viewing the film but also checking your phone. Additionally, the score is overpowering, sometimes almost overwhelming, particularly in the moment where Hamed gets overexcited visiting Warren in his palatial residence.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

While El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable best, their relationship doesn’t quite comes to life, and the major fight scenes are often anticlimactically cut short. The most important scene is certainly when, goaded past his limit in the gym one day by Hamed as a delusional “old man”, Ingle in fact proposes to get in the ring and fight him. All present in the gym is stunned and uneasy. How exactly is this extremely unwise standoff going to play out? What will be the ending? Certainly the champion is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he emotionally pull his punches? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Bright Spots and Comedy

That’s not to say that there aren’t some good moments. Brosnan gets laughs when Ingle tells a reporter what he’s teaching the kids from his local community: to oppose prejudice and when you encounter a offender, “Punch him in the groin”. It’s funny too when the boxer fidgets at the ridiculous stunts Ingle makes him do in the beginning: acting like the “beast from the Middle East”.

Plot and Conclusion

Regarding the rift, the movie shows this as being exacerbated by a tell-all book that Ingle is supposed to have written (a story element evidently adapted from prior material), and there is an interestingly imagined last discussion – however the emotional tribute that the boxer is supposed to have paid to his mentor after his passing is only referenced in the end titles, and not dramatised on film. There is engaging content here, but the punches fail to connect.

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