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The movie features a talented ensemble, depicting the true tale of coach Ingle, who mentored a brash Sheffield teenager from Middle Eastern migrant parents. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to confront racist bullies and transformed into a media-friendly world champion in the 1990s. Ingle cultivated his flamboyant arrogance and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, the boxer betrayed his mentor, cutting him out and making him a blend of Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan portrays the trainer; Amir El-Masry takes on the part of Hamed, and Stephens appears as the bullish promoter Warren, who saw the goldmine that Ingle had discovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the film honestly lacks the Prince’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences flow well, but the crucial story in between is consistently flat and monotonous. There is no subtlety or contrast in the depiction of the protagonist 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 – even though he’s obviously been training and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Problems with Script and Sound

The story is often lumbered with functional, expositional lines that inform you exactly what is happening and what we are supposed to be thinking (“You started your boxing journey at seven years old …”). This is the kind of dialogue that digital executives call “double-screen”, making sure you understand what’s going on while you’re viewing the film but also checking your device. And, the score is overbearing, sometimes nearly deafening, especially in the scene where Hamed gets too excited calling on Warren in his palatial residence.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

While the leads do their considerable utmost, their relationship doesn’t quite comes to life, and the major fight scenes are often anticlimactically truncated. The most important moment is certainly when, goaded past his limit in the training facility one day by Hamed as a misguided “old man”, the trainer actually offers to step into the ring and box him. All present in the room is shocked and uncomfortable. In what way is this insanely unwise confrontation going to play out? What will be the ending? Certainly the Prince is going to kill him? Alternatively will he sentimentally pull his punches? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Bright Spots and Comedy

This isn’t to imply that there aren’t some good moments. Brosnan gets laughs when Ingle tells a reporter what he’s instructing the kids from his neighborhood: to reject bias and when you meet a offender, “Hit them in the groin”. Amusing too when the boxer squirms at the ridiculous antics the coach makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “beast from the East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the rift, the movie depicts this as being exacerbated by a revealing book that the trainer is supposed to have written (a plot point clearly modified from another source), and there is an intriguingly imagined last discussion – although the emotional tribute that Hamed is reportedly given to Ingle after his passing is merely mentioned in the end titles, and not dramatised on film. Some interesting material here, but the punches fail to connect.

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