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This film features a talented ensemble, telling the true tale of coach Brendan Ingle, who mentored a cheeky Yorkshire teenager from Middle Eastern immigrant family. Known as Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to confront prejudice and transformed into a celebrity titleholder in the late 90s. The trainer cultivated his showboating confidence and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, the boxer betrayed his coach, cutting him out and turning him into a blend of John Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan plays Ingle; El-Masry embodies the part of the prince, and Stephens appears as the assertive London promoter Warren, who recognized the potential that Ingle had discovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

Yet, the movie honestly misses the fighter’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes flow well, but the crucial story between them is repeatedly dull and one-note. There is no subtlety or contrast in the depiction of the protagonist himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, doesn’t get the chance to display any subtlety or much of what might make his character truly engaging – even though he’s clearly been working out and looks very plausible in the boxing arena.

Problems with Script and Sound

The drama is repeatedly lumbered with functional, expositional lines that inform you exactly what is happening and what we are meant to feel (“You started your boxing journey at seven years old …”). It is the sort of script that digital producers call “double-screen”, ensuring you know what’s unfolding while you’re watching the film but also glancing at your phone. Additionally, the background music is overbearing, sometimes almost overwhelming, particularly in the moment where the boxer gets overexcited calling on Warren in his luxurious home.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

While El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable best, their relationship never really ignites, and the major fight scenes are frequently anticlimactically truncated. A key scene is certainly when, provoked past his limit in the training facility one day by the boxer as a misguided “old man”, Ingle in fact offers to step into the ring and fight him. All present in the room is shocked and uncomfortable. In what way is this extremely risky confrontation going to play out? What will be the ending? Certainly the Prince is going to defeat him? Or will he sentimentally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Bright Spots and Comedy

This isn’t to imply that there aren’t some nice jabs. Brosnan elicits humor when Ingle informs a journalist what he’s instructing the kids from his local community: to oppose bias and when you encounter a paedophile, “Punch him in the bollocks”. Amusing too when the boxer fidgets at the silly stunts Ingle makes him do in the beginning: acting like the “beast from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the rift, the film shows this as being worsened by a tell-all book that the trainer is allegedly written (a plot point evidently modified from another source), and there is an interestingly conceived final conversation – however the emotional tribute that Hamed is supposed to have given to his mentor after his death is only mentioned in the closing credits, and not shown on film. Some engaging content here, but the punches don’t land.

The film screened at the festival and is in British and Irish theaters from January 9.