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This film boasts a impressive cast, depicting the true tale of coach Ingle, who mentored a brash Yorkshire teenager from Middle Eastern immigrant parents. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to confront racist bullies and transformed into a celebrity titleholder in the late 90s. The trainer nurtured his showboating arrogance and powerful punches, but after becoming rich, Hamed betrayed his coach, excluding him and making him a mix of John Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

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

Film’s Shortcomings

Yet, the film frankly misses the Prince’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences flow well, but the crucial drama between them is consistently dull and one-note. It lacks subtlety or contrast in the portrayal of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, isn’t given the opportunity to show any depth or much of what might make his character truly engaging – even though he’s obviously been training and looks very plausible in the boxing arena.

Problems with Script and Sound

The drama is often lumbered with utilitarian, expositional dialogue that inform you precisely what is happening and what we are supposed to be thinking (“You started your boxing journey at seven years old …”). It is the sort of script that digital executives call “second-screen”, ensuring you understand what’s going on while you’re watching the film but also glancing at your phone. Additionally, the background music is overbearing, sometimes nearly overwhelming, particularly in the scene where the boxer gets overexcited visiting Warren in his palatial residence.

Performances and Key Moments

While the leads do their considerable utmost, their relationship never really ignites, and the big set-piece fight scenes are often anticlimactically truncated. A key scene is certainly when, provoked past his limit in the training facility one day by the boxer as a misguided “old man”, the trainer in fact offers to get in the ring and box him. Everyone in the gym is shocked and uncomfortable. How exactly is this insanely unwise standoff going to unfold? What will be the outcome? Certainly the champion is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he sentimentally hold back? It’s not clear.

Bright Spots and Comedy

This isn’t to imply that there are no some good moments. The actor elicits humor when Ingle informs a journalist what he’s teaching the youths from his local community: to oppose bias and when you encounter a paedophile, “Hit them in the groin”. Amusing too when the boxer fidgets at the silly antics the coach makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “monster from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the rift, the film depicts this as being worsened by a revealing publication that the trainer is allegedly authored (a story element clearly modified from prior material), and there is an interestingly imagined last discussion – although the heartfelt homage that Hamed is reportedly paid to Ingle after his death is merely mentioned in the closing credits, and not dramatised on film. Some interesting material in this film, but the blows don’t land.

The film screened at the London film festival and is in UK and Irish theaters from 9 January.