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The movie boasts a impressive ensemble, telling the true tale of Irish boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, who guided a cheeky Yorkshire youth from Middle Eastern immigrant family. Dubbed “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to stand up to prejudice and transformed into a celebrity world champion in the 1990s. Ingle cultivated his flamboyant confidence and powerful punches, but after achieving wealth, Hamed betrayed his mentor, cutting him out and turning him into a blend of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Brosnan portrays the trainer; El-Masry takes on the part of Hamed, and Toby Stephens appears as the bullish London promoter Frank Warren, who recognized the potential that Ingle had uncovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

Yet, the movie honestly misses the Prince’s agility: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the all-important drama in between is repeatedly flat and one-note. It lacks subtlety or light and shade in the depiction of the protagonist himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, doesn’t get the chance to show any subtlety or much of what might make his role really interesting – although he’s clearly been training and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The drama is often lumbered with utilitarian, explanatory lines that tell you exactly what is happening and what we are meant to feel (“You started your boxing journey at seven years old …”). It is the kind of script that streaming-TV executives call “double-screen”, ensuring you understand what’s going on while you’re watching the film but also checking your device. And, the background music is overbearing, at times almost overwhelming, particularly in the moment where the boxer gets overexcited calling on the promoter in his palatial residence.

Performances and Key Moments

Although the leads do their very best, their relationship doesn’t quite comes to life, and the big set-piece boxing moments are often disappointingly truncated. The most important moment is certainly when, provoked past his limit in the gym one day by the boxer as a misguided “old man”, Ingle in fact proposes to step into the ring and fight him. Everyone in the gym is stunned and uncomfortable. How exactly is this extremely risky confrontation going to unfold? What will be the outcome? Surely the champion 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 are no some good moments. Brosnan gets laughs when Ingle informs a journalist what he’s teaching the youths from his neighborhood: to oppose bias and when you encounter a paedophile, “Hit them in the groin”. It’s funny too when Hamed fidgets at the ridiculous antics the coach makes him do in the early days: acting like the “monster from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the rift, the movie depicts this as being worsened by a tell-all book that Ingle is allegedly written (a plot point clearly adapted from another source), and there is an intriguingly conceived final conversation – although the heartfelt homage that Hamed is reportedly paid to his mentor after his passing is only mentioned in the closing credits, and not dramatised on screen. Some interesting material here, but the blows fail to connect.

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