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This film boasts a impressive ensemble, depicting the real-life story of Irish boxing trainer Ingle, who guided a brash Yorkshire teenager from Middle Eastern immigrant parents. Dubbed “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the youngster was taught to stand up to prejudice and transformed into a celebrity world champion in the late 90s. Ingle nurtured his showboating arrogance and lethal fists, but after achieving wealth, Hamed turned against his mentor, cutting him out and turning him into a mix of John Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Pierce Brosnan portrays Ingle; El-Masry takes on the role of Hamed, and Stephens is the assertive London promoter Warren, who saw the goldmine that the coach had uncovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the movie frankly lacks the fighter’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes flow well, but the all-important story in between is repeatedly flat and monotonous. It lacks subtlety or contrast in the depiction of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, doesn’t get 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 ring.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The drama is repeatedly lumbered with functional, expositional dialogue that tell you precisely what is happening and what we are meant to feel (“You started your boxing journey at age seven …”). It is the kind of dialogue that streaming-TV executives call “second-screen”, ensuring you understand what’s unfolding while you’re watching the movie but also checking your device. Additionally, the background music is overpowering, at times nearly overwhelming, especially in the scene where the boxer gets overexcited calling on Warren in his luxurious home.

Performances and Key Moments

While El-Masry and Brosnan do their very best, their dynamic doesn’t quite ignites, and the major fight scenes are frequently anticlimactically truncated. The most important scene is surely when, goaded past his limit in the gym one day by Hamed as a delusional “elder”, the trainer in fact offers to get in the ring and box him. All present in the room is shocked and uncomfortable. How exactly is this insanely unwise confrontation going to unfold? How precisely the outcome? Certainly the champion is going to defeat him? Or will he sentimentally hold back? It’s not clear.

Highlights and Humor

This isn’t to imply that there are no some nice jabs. Brosnan gets laughs when his character tells a reporter what he’s teaching the youths from his neighborhood: to oppose prejudice and when you meet a paedophile, “Hit them in the bollocks”. Amusing too when Hamed fidgets at the silly antics the coach makes him do in the early days: acting like the “monster from the East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the rift, the film depicts this as being worsened by a tell-all publication that Ingle is allegedly authored (a plot point clearly adapted from prior material), and there is an interestingly imagined last discussion – however the emotional tribute that Hamed is supposed to have given to his mentor after his death is merely mentioned in the closing credits, and not dramatised on screen. There is engaging content in this film, but the blows fail to connect.

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