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This film features a talented ensemble, depicting the true story of Irish boxing trainer Ingle, who mentored a brash Yorkshire teenager from Middle Eastern migrant parents. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the youngster was coached to confront prejudice and molded into a celebrity world champion in the 1990s. The trainer cultivated his flamboyant arrogance and powerful punches, but after achieving wealth, Hamed betrayed his coach, excluding him and making him a mix of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Brosnan plays the trainer; Amir El-Masry embodies the part of Hamed, and Toby Stephens appears as the bullish London promoter Frank Warren, who recognized the potential that the coach had discovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

Yet, the movie frankly misses the Prince’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the all-important drama in between is consistently dull and one-note. It lacks nuance or contrast in the depiction of the protagonist himself, and the actor, an otherwise outstanding performer, isn’t given the chance to display any depth or much of what might make his character really interesting – even though he’s obviously been working out and appears convincing in the ring.

Problems with Script and Sound

The drama is often lumbered with functional, explanatory dialogue that tell 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 dialogue that streaming-TV producers call “second-screen”, ensuring you understand what’s unfolding while you’re viewing the film but also checking your phone. Additionally, the score is overpowering, at times almost overwhelming, particularly in the scene where the boxer gets too excited calling on the promoter in his palatial home.

Performances and Key Moments

Although the leads do their very best, their relationship doesn’t quite ignites, and the big set-piece fight scenes are frequently disappointingly cut short. The most important moment is surely when, provoked beyond endurance in the training facility one day by Hamed as a delusional “elder”, the trainer actually proposes to step into the ring and box him. Everyone in the gym is stunned and uneasy. In what way is this extremely unwise standoff going to play out? How precisely the outcome? Surely the Prince is going to kill him? Alternatively will he sentimentally hold back? It’s not clear.

Highlights and Humor

That’s not to say that there are no some good moments. The actor elicits humor when his character informs a journalist what he’s teaching the kids from his neighborhood: to oppose bias and when you meet a paedophile, “Punch him in the bollocks”. It’s funny too when Hamed squirms at the ridiculous antics the coach makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “beast from the East”.

Plot and Conclusion

As for the falling out, the film shows this as being exacerbated by a revealing book that the trainer is supposed to have written (a story element evidently adapted from another source), and there is an interestingly conceived final conversation – although the heartfelt homage that Hamed is reportedly given to Ingle after his passing is merely mentioned in the closing credits, and not shown on screen. There is interesting material in this film, but the blows don’t land.

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