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This film features a impressive ensemble, depicting the true tale of Irish boxing trainer Ingle, who guided a cheeky Sheffield youth from Middle Eastern migrant family. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to stand up to racist bullies and molded into a media-friendly world champion in the late 90s. The trainer nurtured his showboating confidence and powerful punches, but after becoming rich, Hamed betrayed his coach, excluding him and making him a mix of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan portrays Ingle; Amir El-Masry embodies the role of the prince, and Toby Stephens is the assertive London promoter Frank Warren, who saw the goldmine that the coach had discovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

Yet, the film honestly misses the Prince’s agility: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the crucial story in between is repeatedly flat and monotonous. It lacks subtlety or light and shade in the depiction of the protagonist himself, and the actor, an otherwise outstanding performer, isn’t given the opportunity to show any subtlety or much of what might make his character really interesting – although he’s obviously been working out and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is often lumbered with functional, explanatory lines that inform you exactly what is happening and what we are supposed to be thinking (“You started your boxing journey at age seven …”). This is the kind of script that digital producers call “double-screen”, making sure you know what’s going on while you’re viewing the movie but also checking your device. And, the background music is overpowering, sometimes almost deafening, particularly in the scene where Hamed gets too excited visiting the promoter in his luxurious home.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

While El-Masry and Brosnan do their very best, their relationship doesn’t quite ignites, and the major fight scenes are frequently disappointingly truncated. The most important moment is certainly when, provoked past his limit in the training facility one day by the boxer as a delusional “old man”, the trainer in fact offers to get in the ring and fight him. All present in the room is shocked and uncomfortable. How exactly is this extremely risky standoff going to unfold? How precisely the outcome? Surely the champion is going to kill him? Alternatively will he sentimentally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Bright Spots and Comedy

This isn’t to imply that there are no some nice jabs. 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, “Punch him in the bollocks”. It’s funny too when Hamed squirms at the ridiculous antics the coach makes him do in the early days: acting like the “beast from the East”.

Plot and Conclusion

Regarding the falling out, the movie depicts this as being exacerbated by a revealing publication that Ingle is allegedly authored (a story element evidently modified from another source), and there is an interestingly imagined last discussion – however the heartfelt homage that Hamed is supposed to have paid to Ingle after his death is only mentioned in the end titles, and not shown on film. Some interesting material in this film, but the punches fail to connect.

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