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This film boasts a talented cast, telling the real-life tale of coach Brendan Ingle, who mentored a brash Sheffield teenager from Middle Eastern migrant family. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the youngster was taught to stand up to prejudice and molded into a celebrity titleholder in the late 90s. The trainer nurtured his flamboyant confidence and lethal fists, but after achieving wealth, the boxer turned against his mentor, excluding him and turning him into a blend of Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Brosnan portrays the trainer; Amir El-Masry embodies the role of Hamed, and Stephens is the assertive London promoter Warren, who saw the goldmine that the coach had uncovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the movie honestly lacks the Prince’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences flow well, but the all-important drama between them is consistently flat and one-note. It lacks nuance or light and shade in the portrayal of Hamed himself, and the actor, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the chance to display any depth or much of what might make his role truly engaging – even though he’s obviously been working out and looks very plausible in the boxing arena.

Problems with Script and Sound

The story is often burdened by utilitarian, explanatory lines that inform you precisely what is going on and what we are supposed to be thinking (“You started your boxing journey at age seven …”). This is the sort of dialogue that streaming-TV producers call “double-screen”, making sure you understand what’s going on while you’re watching the movie but also glancing at your phone. Additionally, the background music is overpowering, sometimes almost deafening, particularly in the moment where Hamed gets too excited calling on Warren in his luxurious residence.

Performances and Key Moments

While the leads do their very best, their dynamic never really comes to life, and the major fight scenes are often anticlimactically cut short. A key scene is certainly when, goaded beyond endurance in the gym one day by the boxer as a misguided “old man”, the trainer actually proposes to step into the ring and box him. Everyone in the room is stunned and uncomfortable. How exactly is this extremely risky confrontation going to unfold? What will be the outcome? Certainly the Prince is going to kill him? Alternatively will he sentimentally pull his punches? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Highlights and Humor

That’s not to say that there aren’t some good moments. The actor elicits humor when his character tells a journalist what he’s instructing the kids from his local community: to reject prejudice and when you meet a offender, “Punch him in the bollocks”. It’s funny too when Hamed fidgets at the ridiculous antics Ingle makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “beast from the East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

As for the rift, the movie shows this as being worsened by a revealing publication that the trainer is allegedly authored (a plot point evidently modified from another source), and there is an intriguingly conceived last discussion – although the heartfelt homage that Hamed is reportedly given to Ingle after his death is merely referenced in the closing credits, and not shown on film. Some engaging content here, but the blows fail to connect.

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