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This film features a talented cast, depicting the real-life story of Irish boxing trainer Ingle, who mentored a brash Sheffield youth from Yemeni immigrant parents. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the youngster was coached to confront racist bullies and molded into a celebrity titleholder in the 1990s. The trainer cultivated his showboating arrogance and powerful punches, but after becoming rich, Hamed turned against his coach, excluding him and turning him into a blend of John Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan plays Ingle; El-Masry takes on the part of the prince, and Toby Stephens appears as the assertive London promoter Warren, who recognized the potential that the coach had uncovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the film frankly lacks the Prince’s agility: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the crucial story in between is repeatedly flat and one-note. There is no nuance or light and shade in the portrayal of Hamed himself, and the actor, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the opportunity to show any depth or much of what might make his role truly engaging – even though he’s obviously been working out and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Problems with Script and Sound

The drama is often lumbered with functional, expositional lines that tell you precisely what is going on and what we are supposed to be thinking (“Your journey began your career at age seven …”). It is the sort of script that digital producers call “second-screen”, making sure you understand what’s unfolding while you’re watching the movie but also glancing at your phone. Additionally, the score is overpowering, sometimes almost deafening, particularly in the scene where the boxer gets overexcited calling on Warren in his palatial home.

Performances and Key Moments

While El-Masry and Brosnan do their very best, their relationship never really comes to life, and the big set-piece fight scenes are frequently disappointingly truncated. The most important scene is certainly when, goaded past his limit in the training facility one day by the boxer as a delusional “elder”, the trainer in fact offers to step into the ring and box him. All present in the gym is stunned and uncomfortable. In what way is this extremely unwise standoff going to play out? What will be the ending? Surely the Prince is going to kill him? Alternatively will he sentimentally pull his punches? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Bright Spots and Comedy

This isn’t to imply that there are no some nice jabs. The actor gets laughs when his character informs a reporter what he’s teaching the youths from his neighborhood: to oppose bias and when you encounter a offender, “Hit them in the groin”. Amusing too when Hamed fidgets at the silly antics the coach makes him do in the early days: acting like the “monster from the East”.

Plot and Conclusion

Regarding the rift, the film shows this as being exacerbated by a tell-all publication that the trainer is allegedly written (a plot point evidently adapted from another source), and there is an interestingly imagined final conversation – however the emotional tribute that the boxer is supposed to have given to Ingle after his death is merely referenced in the closing credits, and not dramatised on film. There is interesting material here, but the punches don’t land.

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