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This film features a impressive ensemble, telling the real-life story of coach Brendan Ingle, who guided a brash Yorkshire youth from Middle Eastern migrant parents. Dubbed “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to confront prejudice and molded into a media-friendly titleholder in the late 90s. Ingle cultivated his showboating arrogance and lethal fists, but after achieving wealth, Hamed turned against his mentor, cutting him out and making him a blend of John Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

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

Film’s Shortcomings

Yet, the film honestly lacks the Prince’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes flow well, but the all-important drama in between is consistently flat and one-note. It lacks nuance or light and shade in the depiction of the protagonist himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the chance to display any depth or much of what might make his character really interesting – although he’s clearly been training and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The drama is repeatedly burdened by functional, explanatory dialogue that tell you precisely what is going on and what we are supposed to be thinking (“Your journey began your boxing journey at age seven …”). It is the sort of dialogue that streaming-TV executives call “double-screen”, ensuring you know what’s unfolding while you’re watching the movie but also checking your device. Additionally, the score is overbearing, sometimes almost overwhelming, especially in the moment where the boxer gets too excited calling on Warren in his palatial home.

Performances and Key Moments

Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their very best, their dynamic doesn’t quite comes to life, and the big set-piece fight scenes are frequently disappointingly truncated. The most important scene is certainly when, provoked beyond endurance in the training facility one day by the boxer as a misguided “old man”, the trainer in fact proposes to get in the ring and fight him. Everyone in the gym is stunned and uncomfortable. In what way is this insanely unwise standoff going to unfold? How precisely the outcome? Surely the Prince is going to kill him? Alternatively will he emotionally hold back? It’s not clear.

Bright Spots and Comedy

That’s not to say that there are no some good moments. The actor gets laughs when his character tells a journalist what he’s teaching the youths from his neighborhood: to reject prejudice and when you meet a offender, “Hit them in the bollocks”. Amusing too when the boxer fidgets at the ridiculous antics Ingle makes him do in the beginning: acting like the “beast from the East”.

Plot and Conclusion

As for the rift, the film shows this as being exacerbated by a revealing publication that Ingle is allegedly authored (a plot point evidently modified from another source), and there is an intriguingly conceived final conversation – however the emotional tribute that Hamed is reportedly given to Ingle after his death is merely mentioned in the closing credits, and not shown on film. There is engaging content here, but the punches fail to connect.

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