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This film features a talented cast, depicting the real-life tale of coach Ingle, who guided a cheeky Yorkshire teenager from Middle Eastern migrant parents. Known as Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to confront prejudice and molded into a celebrity titleholder in the late 90s. Ingle nurtured his flamboyant arrogance and powerful punches, but after achieving wealth, Hamed betrayed his mentor, excluding him and turning him into a mix of John Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Brosnan plays the trainer; El-Masry embodies the role of Hamed, and Toby Stephens appears as the assertive London promoter Frank Warren, who saw the potential that Ingle had uncovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the movie honestly misses the Prince’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes flow well, but the all-important drama in between is repeatedly dull and one-note. It lacks subtlety or light and shade in the portrayal of the protagonist himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, isn’t given the opportunity to display any depth or much of what might make his character truly engaging – even though he’s obviously been working out and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is repeatedly burdened by functional, explanatory lines that tell you exactly what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your boxing journey at age seven …”). It is the kind of dialogue that streaming-TV producers call “second-screen”, making sure you understand what’s going on while you’re watching the film but also glancing at your device. And, the background music is overbearing, at times almost deafening, particularly in the moment where the boxer gets overexcited calling on the promoter in his palatial residence.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable best, their dynamic doesn’t quite ignites, and the big set-piece boxing moments are frequently anticlimactically cut short. A key scene is certainly when, provoked beyond endurance in the training facility one day by the boxer as a misguided “elder”, Ingle in fact offers to step into the ring and box him. All present in the room is stunned and uneasy. In what way is this extremely risky standoff going to play out? How precisely the outcome? Certainly the Prince is going to defeat him? Or will he emotionally pull his punches? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Bright Spots and Comedy

That’s not to say that there aren’t some nice jabs. Brosnan elicits humor when Ingle informs a journalist what he’s instructing the kids from his neighborhood: to reject prejudice and when you meet a paedophile, “Hit them in the bollocks”. It’s funny too when Hamed squirms at the ridiculous stunts the coach makes him do in the early days: acting like the “monster from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the falling out, the film shows this as being worsened by a revealing book that the trainer is allegedly authored (a story element evidently modified from another source), and there is an intriguingly conceived final conversation – however the emotional tribute that the boxer is supposed to have paid to his mentor after his death is merely referenced in the end titles, and not shown on film. There is engaging content in this film, but the punches fail to connect.

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