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The movie boasts a talented cast, depicting the real-life story of coach Brendan Ingle, who mentored a cheeky Sheffield youth from Middle Eastern migrant family. Known as Naseem Hamed, the youngster was taught to confront racist bullies and molded into a media-friendly world champion 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 mix of John Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Brosnan portrays the trainer; El-Masry takes on the part of the prince, and Stephens appears as the assertive London promoter Warren, who recognized the potential that the coach had uncovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the film honestly misses the Prince’s agility: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the all-important story in between is repeatedly flat and monotonous. There is no nuance or light and shade in the portrayal of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, isn’t given the opportunity to show any subtlety or much of what might make his character truly engaging – even though he’s obviously been training and looks very plausible in the ring.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The drama is often lumbered with functional, explanatory lines that tell you precisely what is happening and what we are supposed to be thinking (“Your journey began your boxing journey at age seven …”). This is the kind of script that digital producers call “double-screen”, making sure you understand what’s going on while you’re watching the film but also glancing at your phone. Additionally, the score is overpowering, at times almost deafening, particularly in the moment where Hamed gets too excited calling on Warren in his luxurious home.

Performances and Key Moments

While El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable best, their relationship doesn’t quite ignites, and the major fight scenes are often anticlimactically truncated. A key scene is surely when, goaded beyond endurance in the training facility one day by Hamed as a misguided “old man”, Ingle in fact offers to step into the ring and box him. Everyone in the gym is stunned and uneasy. How exactly is this extremely unwise confrontation going to play out? How precisely the ending? Surely the champion is going to kill him? Or will he emotionally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Highlights and Humor

That’s not to say that there are no some nice jabs. The actor elicits humor when Ingle tells a journalist what he’s teaching the youths from his local community: to reject prejudice and when you meet a offender, “Punch him in the groin”. It’s funny too when the boxer squirms at the silly stunts Ingle makes him do in the early days: acting like the “beast from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the falling out, the film depicts this as being worsened by a revealing book that Ingle is supposed to have written (a plot point clearly modified from prior material), and there is an interestingly conceived final conversation – however the heartfelt homage that the boxer is supposed to have paid to Ingle after his death is merely mentioned in the end titles, and not shown on film. Some engaging content here, but the punches fail to connect.

The film was shown at the festival and is in UK and Irish theaters from January 9.