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The movie features a talented ensemble, depicting the true tale of coach Brendan Ingle, who guided a cheeky Sheffield youth from Middle Eastern migrant family. Dubbed “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to stand up to racist bullies and molded into a media-friendly titleholder in the 1990s. Ingle cultivated his showboating arrogance and powerful punches, but after achieving wealth, the boxer betrayed his coach, cutting him out and making him a mix of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan portrays Ingle; El-Masry takes on the role of the prince, and Stephens appears as the bullish promoter Warren, who saw the goldmine that the coach had discovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the movie honestly lacks the fighter’s agility: the fight scenes flow well, but the crucial drama in between is repeatedly flat and one-note. It lacks subtlety or light and shade in the depiction of Hamed himself, and the actor, an otherwise excellent talent, isn’t given the chance to show any depth or much of what might make his character truly engaging – even though he’s obviously been working out and looks very plausible in the ring.

Problems with Script and Sound

The story is repeatedly lumbered with functional, expositional dialogue that inform you exactly what is happening and what we are supposed to be thinking (“Your journey began your career at seven years old …”). It is the sort of dialogue that digital executives call “second-screen”, ensuring you understand what’s going on while you’re watching the film but also checking your phone. And, the background music is overbearing, sometimes almost overwhelming, particularly in the scene where the boxer gets overexcited calling on Warren in his palatial home.

Performances and Key Moments

Although the leads do their very utmost, their relationship doesn’t quite comes to life, and the big set-piece boxing moments are frequently disappointingly cut short. A key moment is surely when, provoked beyond endurance in the training facility one day by Hamed as a misguided “old man”, Ingle in fact proposes to step into the ring and box him. All present in the gym is shocked and uncomfortable. In what way is this insanely unwise confrontation going to play out? How precisely the outcome? Surely the Prince is going to defeat him? Or will he emotionally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Highlights and Humor

That’s not to say that there aren’t some good moments. The actor gets laughs when his character tells a reporter what he’s instructing the youths from his local community: to reject prejudice and when you encounter a offender, “Punch him in the groin”. Amusing too when Hamed fidgets at the silly antics Ingle makes him do in the early days: acting like the “beast from the East”.

Plot and Conclusion

Regarding the falling out, the film depicts this as being worsened by a tell-all book that Ingle is allegedly written (a plot point evidently adapted from another source), and there is an interestingly imagined last discussion – although the emotional tribute that the boxer is supposed to have given to his mentor after his passing is merely referenced in the end titles, 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 British and Irish theaters from 9 January.