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The movie boasts a impressive ensemble, depicting the true story of Irish boxing trainer Ingle, who mentored a brash Sheffield teenager from Middle Eastern immigrant parents. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the youngster was coached to stand up to prejudice and molded into a media-friendly world champion in the late 90s. The trainer cultivated his showboating arrogance and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, the boxer betrayed his coach, excluding him and making him a blend of Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan portrays the trainer; Amir El-Masry takes on the part of Hamed, and Stephens is the bullish London promoter Warren, who saw the potential that the coach had discovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the movie honestly misses the fighter’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the all-important drama between them is consistently flat and monotonous. It lacks subtlety or light and shade in the portrayal of the protagonist himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, doesn’t get the opportunity to show any depth or much of what might make his character truly engaging – although he’s clearly been training and looks very plausible in the ring.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is repeatedly burdened by utilitarian, explanatory dialogue that inform you precisely what is going on and what we are supposed to be thinking (“Your journey began your boxing journey at age seven …”). It is the kind of script that streaming-TV executives call “second-screen”, making sure you know what’s going on while you’re viewing the film but also checking your device. Additionally, the background music is overbearing, sometimes nearly overwhelming, especially in the moment where Hamed gets too excited calling on the promoter in his palatial home.

Performances and Key Moments

While El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable best, their dynamic never really ignites, and the big set-piece boxing moments are often disappointingly cut short. The most important scene is surely when, provoked past his limit in the gym one day by the boxer as a misguided “old man”, the trainer in fact proposes to step into the ring and fight him. Everyone in the room is stunned and uncomfortable. In what way is this insanely risky confrontation going to play out? How precisely the ending? Certainly the Prince is going to kill him? Alternatively will he sentimentally hold back? It’s not clear.

Bright Spots and Comedy

That’s not to say that there are no some good moments. The actor gets laughs when his character tells a reporter what he’s instructing the kids from his neighborhood: to reject bias and when you encounter a offender, “Punch him in the bollocks”. It’s funny too when Hamed fidgets at the silly antics the coach makes him do in the early days: posing as the “beast from the East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the falling out, the film shows this as being exacerbated by a tell-all book that the trainer is allegedly authored (a story element evidently modified from another source), and there is an intriguingly imagined final conversation – however the heartfelt homage that Hamed is reportedly paid to Ingle after his death is only mentioned in the end titles, and not dramatised on film. There is engaging content in this film, but the punches don’t land.

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