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This film features a talented cast, telling the true tale of coach Brendan Ingle, who mentored a brash Sheffield teenager from Yemeni immigrant family. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the youngster was coached to confront racist bullies and molded into a media-friendly titleholder in the 1990s. Ingle nurtured his showboating arrogance and powerful punches, but after becoming rich, Hamed turned against his coach, cutting him out and making him a blend of John Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Brosnan plays Ingle; El-Masry embodies the part of the prince, and Toby Stephens is the bullish promoter Warren, who saw the goldmine that Ingle had discovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the film honestly misses the Prince’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences flow well, but the crucial drama between them is consistently flat and one-note. There is no subtlety or light and shade in the depiction of Hamed himself, and the actor, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the chance to show any depth or much of what might make his character truly engaging – even though he’s clearly been working out and looks very plausible in the ring.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is repeatedly lumbered with functional, expositional dialogue that tell you precisely what is happening and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your boxing journey at age seven …”). It is the kind of dialogue that digital producers call “second-screen”, making sure you understand what’s unfolding while you’re watching the film but also glancing at your phone. Additionally, the score is overpowering, at times almost deafening, particularly in the moment where Hamed gets overexcited calling on Warren in his palatial residence.

Performances and Key Moments

Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable best, their relationship never really comes to life, and the major fight scenes are often anticlimactically truncated. A key scene is certainly when, provoked past his limit in the training facility one day by the boxer as a delusional “elder”, the trainer actually offers to step into the ring and box him. Everyone in the gym is stunned and uncomfortable. How exactly is this extremely risky confrontation going to play out? How precisely the ending? Surely the Prince is going to kill him? Or will he emotionally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Highlights and Humor

That’s not to say that there are no some good moments. The actor gets laughs when Ingle informs a reporter what he’s instructing the kids from his neighborhood: to oppose bias and when you encounter a offender, “Punch him in the groin”. Amusing too when Hamed fidgets at the ridiculous stunts Ingle makes him do in the early days: posing as the “monster from the East”.

Plot and Conclusion

Regarding the falling out, the movie depicts this as being worsened by a revealing publication that the trainer is allegedly authored (a story element clearly modified from another source), and there is an intriguingly imagined last discussion – however the emotional tribute that Hamed is reportedly paid to Ingle after his passing is only referenced in the end titles, and not dramatised on film. There is engaging content in this film, but the punches don’t land.

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