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This film boasts a impressive cast, depicting the real-life tale of coach Brendan Ingle, who mentored a brash Yorkshire teenager from Middle Eastern immigrant family. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to stand up to racist bullies and molded into a celebrity world champion in the 1990s. The trainer nurtured his flamboyant arrogance and powerful punches, but after becoming rich, Hamed turned against his mentor, excluding him and making him a blend of Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan plays Ingle; El-Masry takes on the part of the prince, and Toby Stephens is the assertive promoter Frank Warren, who saw the goldmine that Ingle had discovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

However, the film frankly misses the Prince’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the crucial drama in between is consistently flat and monotonous. There is no nuance or contrast in the depiction of the protagonist himself, and the actor, an otherwise outstanding performer, doesn’t get the chance to show any depth or much of what might make his role truly engaging – even though he’s clearly been working out and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Problems with Script and Sound

The drama is repeatedly burdened by functional, expositional dialogue that inform you precisely what is happening and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your boxing journey at seven years old …”). It is the kind of dialogue that streaming-TV executives call “second-screen”, making sure you know what’s unfolding while you’re viewing the movie but also glancing at your phone. And, the background music is overpowering, sometimes almost deafening, particularly in the scene where Hamed gets overexcited calling on the promoter in his luxurious home.

Performances and Key Moments

While the leads do their considerable best, their relationship doesn’t quite comes to life, and the big set-piece boxing moments are often disappointingly cut short. A key scene is surely when, goaded beyond endurance in the gym one day by the boxer as a misguided “elder”, Ingle in fact proposes to get in the ring and box him. All present in the gym is shocked and uncomfortable. How exactly is this extremely unwise confrontation going to play out? How precisely the outcome? Certainly the Prince is going to kill him? Or will he sentimentally pull his punches? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Bright Spots and Comedy

That’s not to say that there are no some nice jabs. The actor gets laughs when his character informs a reporter what he’s instructing the kids from his local community: to reject bias and when you encounter a paedophile, “Hit them in the groin”. It’s funny too when the boxer squirms at the silly stunts the coach makes him do in the beginning: acting like the “monster from the East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

As for the rift, the film shows this as being exacerbated by a tell-all book that the trainer is allegedly authored (a story element evidently modified from prior material), and there is an interestingly conceived final conversation – however the heartfelt homage that Hamed is reportedly paid to Ingle after his death is merely mentioned in the end titles, and not dramatised on screen. There is engaging content in this film, but the blows don’t land.

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