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The movie boasts a talented ensemble, telling the true tale of Irish boxing trainer Ingle, who guided a brash Sheffield teenager from Yemeni migrant parents. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to stand up to prejudice and transformed into a celebrity titleholder in the 1990s. The trainer cultivated his showboating confidence and powerful punches, but after achieving wealth, the boxer turned against his mentor, excluding him and making him a blend of John Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Pierce Brosnan portrays the trainer; El-Masry takes on the role of Hamed, and Toby Stephens is the assertive promoter Frank Warren, who recognized the potential that Ingle had discovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

Yet, the film frankly lacks the fighter’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the all-important story in between is consistently flat and one-note. It lacks subtlety or contrast in the depiction of the protagonist himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, isn’t given the chance to display any depth or much of what might make his role really interesting – even though he’s obviously been training and looks very plausible in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The drama is often burdened by utilitarian, expositional lines that tell you precisely what is happening and what we are meant to feel (“You started your career at age seven …”). It is the sort of dialogue that digital executives call “second-screen”, making sure you know what’s going on while you’re viewing the film but also checking your device. Additionally, the score is overpowering, sometimes nearly deafening, particularly in the scene where the boxer gets overexcited visiting Warren in his luxurious home.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

While El-Masry and Brosnan do their very utmost, their relationship never really ignites, and the big set-piece fight scenes are often disappointingly truncated. A key moment is surely when, goaded past his limit in the gym one day by the boxer as a misguided “elder”, Ingle in fact offers to step into the ring and box him. Everyone 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? Alternatively will he sentimentally hold back? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Highlights and Humor

That’s not to say that there are no some nice jabs. The actor elicits humor when his character informs a reporter what he’s instructing the kids from his local community: to oppose prejudice and when you meet a offender, “Hit them in the groin”. Amusing too when Hamed fidgets at the silly antics the coach makes him do in the early days: acting like the “beast from the East”.

Plot and Conclusion

As for the falling out, the movie depicts this as being exacerbated by a revealing book that Ingle is allegedly written (a story element evidently modified from prior material), and there is an interestingly conceived last discussion – although the heartfelt homage that the boxer is supposed to have paid to Ingle after his passing is merely mentioned in the closing credits, and not shown on screen. There is interesting material here, but the blows don’t land.

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