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This film boasts a impressive cast, telling the true tale of Irish boxing trainer Ingle, who guided a brash Sheffield youth from Yemeni immigrant family. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to stand up to prejudice and molded into a media-friendly world champion in the late 90s. The trainer nurtured his showboating confidence and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, the boxer betrayed his coach, excluding him and making him a mix of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan plays the trainer; Amir El-Masry takes on the part of the prince, and Stephens appears as the bullish promoter Frank Warren, who saw the potential that the coach had discovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

Yet, the film honestly lacks the Prince’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences flow well, but the all-important drama between them is repeatedly dull and one-note. It lacks subtlety or light and shade in the depiction of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, isn’t given the opportunity to display any depth or much of what might make his character truly engaging – although he’s obviously been training and looks very plausible in the ring.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is repeatedly burdened by functional, explanatory lines that inform you exactly 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 script that digital producers call “double-screen”, ensuring you know what’s unfolding while you’re viewing the film but also glancing at your device. And, the background music is overbearing, sometimes nearly deafening, particularly in the scene where Hamed gets overexcited calling on Warren in his luxurious home.

Performances and Key Moments

While the leads do their very best, their dynamic never really ignites, and the major fight scenes are frequently disappointingly cut short. A key scene is certainly when, goaded past his limit in the training facility one day by the boxer as a misguided “old man”, the trainer in fact proposes to get in the ring and fight him. All present in the gym is stunned and uneasy. How exactly is this insanely unwise standoff going to play out? How precisely the outcome? Surely the Prince is going to kill him? Alternatively will he sentimentally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Bright Spots and Comedy

That’s not to say that there aren’t some good moments. Brosnan gets laughs when his character informs a journalist what he’s instructing the kids from his local community: to reject bias and when you encounter a offender, “Hit them in the bollocks”. It’s funny too when the boxer squirms at the ridiculous antics the coach makes him do in the beginning: acting like the “monster from the Middle East”.

Plot and Conclusion

As for the rift, the movie depicts this as being exacerbated by a revealing publication that the trainer is allegedly written (a plot point clearly adapted from another source), and there is an interestingly imagined last discussion – although the emotional tribute that Hamed is reportedly paid to Ingle after his death is merely mentioned in the closing credits, and not shown on screen. Some engaging content in this film, but the blows don’t land.

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