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This film features a talented cast, telling the true story of coach Brendan Ingle, who mentored a cheeky Sheffield teenager from Yemeni migrant family. Dubbed “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to stand up to racist bullies and transformed into a media-friendly titleholder in the late 90s. The trainer cultivated his flamboyant confidence and powerful punches, but after achieving wealth, the boxer turned against his mentor, cutting him out and making him a mix of John Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Brosnan portrays Ingle; Amir El-Masry takes on the role of Hamed, and Toby Stephens appears as the bullish promoter Frank Warren, who saw the potential that Ingle had discovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the movie frankly lacks the fighter’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the crucial drama in between is consistently flat and one-note. There is no subtlety or contrast in the depiction of the protagonist himself, and the actor, an otherwise outstanding performer, isn’t given the chance to display any subtlety or much of what might make his role truly engaging – although he’s obviously been working out and looks very plausible in the ring.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The drama is often burdened by functional, expositional lines that tell you precisely what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your boxing journey at seven years old …”). It is the sort of dialogue that streaming-TV producers call “double-screen”, making sure you understand what’s unfolding while you’re watching the movie but also glancing at your phone. And, the score is overpowering, sometimes nearly deafening, especially in the scene where the boxer gets overexcited calling on Warren in his luxurious residence.

Performances and Key Moments

While the leads do their very best, their dynamic doesn’t quite comes to life, and the big set-piece fight scenes are often disappointingly truncated. The most important scene is surely when, goaded beyond endurance in the training facility one day by Hamed as a misguided “elder”, Ingle in fact proposes to step into the ring and box him. Everyone in the gym is stunned and uneasy. How exactly is this insanely risky confrontation going to unfold? How precisely the outcome? Surely the champion is going to kill him? Alternatively will he emotionally hold back? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Highlights and Humor

That’s not to say that there are no some good moments. The actor gets laughs when his character informs a reporter what he’s instructing the youths from his local community: to reject bias and when you meet a offender, “Punch him in the bollocks”. Amusing too when Hamed fidgets at the silly antics the coach makes him do in the early days: posing as the “monster from the East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the falling out, the movie depicts this as being worsened by a revealing book that the trainer is supposed to have written (a story element clearly modified from prior material), and there is an intriguingly imagined last discussion – although the heartfelt homage that Hamed is supposed to have given to his mentor after his passing is merely referenced in the end titles, and not dramatised on film. Some interesting material here, but the punches don’t land.

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