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This film boasts a talented cast, depicting the real-life tale of coach Brendan Ingle, who mentored a brash Yorkshire teenager from Yemeni migrant parents. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to confront prejudice and transformed into a media-friendly world champion in the late 90s. Ingle nurtured his showboating confidence and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, the boxer turned against his mentor, cutting him out and making him a mix of John Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Pierce Brosnan plays the trainer; El-Masry embodies the part of the prince, and Stephens appears as the assertive promoter Warren, who recognized the goldmine that Ingle had uncovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

However, the film frankly lacks the fighter’s agility: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the all-important story in between is consistently dull and monotonous. It lacks subtlety or contrast in the portrayal of the protagonist himself, and the actor, an otherwise excellent talent, isn’t given the chance to display any depth or much of what might make his role truly engaging – even though he’s clearly been training and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The drama is often lumbered with utilitarian, explanatory lines that tell you exactly what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your career at age seven …”). This is the kind of script that digital executives call “second-screen”, ensuring you know what’s unfolding while you’re viewing the film but also checking your phone. And, the score is overpowering, at times nearly overwhelming, particularly in the moment where the boxer gets overexcited visiting Warren in his palatial residence.

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 boxing moments are often disappointingly truncated. The most important scene is certainly when, goaded past his limit in the gym one day by the boxer as a misguided “elder”, Ingle actually offers to step into the ring and fight him. Everyone in the room is stunned and uncomfortable. In what way is this insanely risky standoff going to play out? How precisely the outcome? Certainly the Prince is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he sentimentally hold back? It’s not clear.

Highlights and Humor

That’s not to say that there are no some nice jabs. The actor elicits humor when his character tells a journalist what he’s instructing the kids from his neighborhood: to oppose bias and when you meet a offender, “Punch him in the bollocks”. Amusing too when Hamed fidgets at the silly stunts Ingle makes him do in the early days: posing as the “monster from the East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the falling out, the movie shows this as being worsened by a revealing book that the trainer is allegedly written (a plot point evidently adapted from prior material), and there is an interestingly imagined final conversation – although the emotional tribute that the boxer is supposed to have given to Ingle after his death is only referenced in the end titles, and not shown on screen. Some interesting material here, but the blows don’t land.

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