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The movie boasts a talented cast, depicting the true story of Irish boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, who guided a cheeky Yorkshire teenager from Yemeni immigrant parents. Dubbed “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the youngster was coached to stand up to prejudice and transformed into a celebrity world champion in the 1990s. The trainer nurtured his flamboyant confidence and lethal fists, but after achieving wealth, the boxer betrayed his mentor, cutting him out and turning him into a blend of John Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Brosnan plays the trainer; El-Masry takes on the part of the prince, and Stephens is the assertive London promoter Frank Warren, who recognized the potential that Ingle had discovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

Yet, the movie frankly lacks the fighter’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences flow well, but the crucial drama in between is consistently dull and one-note. It lacks subtlety or contrast in the depiction of the protagonist himself, and the actor, an otherwise excellent talent, isn’t given the chance to display any subtlety or much of what might make his role really interesting – although he’s clearly been working out and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The drama is repeatedly burdened by functional, expositional lines that inform you exactly what is happening and what we are supposed to be thinking (“You started your boxing journey at age seven …”). This is the sort of script that streaming-TV executives call “second-screen”, making sure you understand what’s going on while you’re viewing the film but also glancing at your device. And, the score is overbearing, at times nearly overwhelming, particularly in the scene where the boxer gets overexcited calling on Warren in his palatial home.

Performances and Key Moments

Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their very best, their relationship doesn’t quite comes to life, and the major fight scenes are often disappointingly cut short. A key scene is surely when, goaded past his limit in the training facility one day by Hamed as a delusional “elder”, the trainer in fact proposes to step into the ring and box him. Everyone in the gym is shocked and uneasy. How exactly is this insanely unwise confrontation going to play out? How precisely the ending? Surely the champion is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he sentimentally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Bright Spots and Comedy

That’s not to say that there are no some nice jabs. Brosnan elicits humor when his character informs a reporter what he’s instructing the kids from his local community: to reject bias and when you encounter a offender, “Punch him in the bollocks”. Amusing too when the boxer fidgets at the ridiculous stunts Ingle makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “beast from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the rift, the movie shows this as being worsened by a tell-all publication that the trainer is allegedly authored (a story element evidently modified from prior material), and there is an interestingly conceived last discussion – although the emotional tribute that the boxer is supposed to have paid to Ingle after his death is merely referenced in the closing credits, and not dramatised on screen. There is interesting material here, but the punches don’t land.

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