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The movie features a talented cast, telling the real-life tale of Irish boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, who guided a cheeky Sheffield teenager from Yemeni immigrant parents. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to stand up to racist bullies and transformed into a celebrity world champion in the 1990s. Ingle nurtured his showboating arrogance and powerful punches, but after becoming rich, Hamed betrayed his mentor, cutting him out and turning him into a blend of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

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

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the film frankly lacks the fighter’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes flow well, but the all-important story in between is repeatedly dull and monotonous. It lacks subtlety or light and shade in the portrayal of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, isn’t given the opportunity to display any depth or much of what might make his character really interesting – even though he’s obviously been working out and looks very plausible in the boxing arena.

Problems with Script and Sound

The story is often lumbered with utilitarian, expositional lines that tell you precisely what is happening and what we are supposed to be thinking (“You started your boxing journey at seven years old …”). This is the kind of dialogue that digital executives call “second-screen”, making sure you know what’s going on while you’re watching the film but also checking your device. And, the background music is overpowering, at times nearly deafening, especially in the scene where Hamed gets too excited visiting the promoter in his luxurious home.

Performances and Key Moments

While El-Masry and Brosnan do their very utmost, their relationship doesn’t quite comes to life, and the major boxing moments are frequently anticlimactically cut short. The most important scene is surely when, goaded beyond endurance in the gym one day by the boxer as a misguided “elder”, the trainer in fact proposes to get in the ring and fight him. Everyone in the room is shocked and uneasy. How exactly is this extremely risky confrontation going to unfold? What will be the outcome? Certainly the champion is going to defeat him? Or will he sentimentally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Bright Spots and Comedy

That’s not to say that there are no some good moments. Brosnan gets laughs when Ingle tells a reporter what he’s instructing the kids from his neighborhood: to oppose bias and when you meet a offender, “Hit them in the bollocks”. Amusing too when Hamed squirms at the ridiculous stunts the coach makes him do in the early days: posing as the “monster from the East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

As for the rift, the movie depicts this as being worsened by a tell-all book that the trainer is allegedly authored (a plot point evidently modified from another source), and there is an intriguingly imagined final conversation – although the heartfelt homage that the boxer is supposed to have paid to Ingle after his death is only mentioned in the closing credits, and not shown on film. There is engaging content here, but the blows fail to connect.

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