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This film boasts a impressive ensemble, depicting the real-life tale of coach Ingle, who guided a cheeky Sheffield youth from Middle Eastern migrant parents. Dubbed “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the youngster was taught to confront racist bullies and molded into a celebrity world champion in the late 90s. Ingle nurtured his flamboyant confidence and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, the boxer turned against his mentor, cutting him out and making him a blend of Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Pierce Brosnan portrays the trainer; Amir El-Masry takes on the part of the prince, and Toby Stephens is the assertive promoter Frank Warren, who recognized the potential that the coach had uncovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

Yet, the film frankly misses the Prince’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the crucial story in between is consistently flat and one-note. It lacks subtlety or contrast in the portrayal of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, isn’t given the opportunity to display any subtlety or much of what might make his character truly engaging – although he’s obviously been working out and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is often lumbered with functional, expositional lines that inform you precisely what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“You started your career at age seven …”). It is the sort of script that digital executives call “second-screen”, making sure you know what’s going on while you’re viewing the film but also checking your device. And, the background music is overbearing, at times nearly deafening, especially in the moment where Hamed gets too excited calling on the promoter in his palatial residence.

Performances and Key Moments

Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable utmost, their relationship doesn’t quite ignites, and the major fight scenes are often anticlimactically truncated. The most important moment is surely when, provoked beyond endurance in the gym one day by Hamed as a delusional “elder”, Ingle actually offers to get in the ring and fight him. All present in the gym is stunned and uncomfortable. How exactly is this insanely risky confrontation going to play out? How precisely the ending? Certainly the Prince is going to kill him? Alternatively will he sentimentally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Highlights and Humor

That’s not to say that there are no some good moments. The actor elicits humor when his character informs a journalist what he’s instructing the kids from his local community: to reject prejudice and when you encounter a offender, “Hit them in the groin”. It’s funny too when Hamed fidgets at the silly antics the coach makes him do in the early days: posing as the “monster from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

As for the falling out, the movie shows this as being worsened by a revealing book that the trainer is supposed to have written (a story element clearly adapted from prior material), and there is an intriguingly conceived final conversation – although 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 dramatised on screen. Some interesting material in this film, but the punches don’t land.

The film screened at the London film festival and is available in UK and Irish theaters from 9 January.