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The movie boasts a impressive ensemble, telling the real-life tale of Irish boxing trainer Ingle, who mentored a brash Yorkshire youth from Middle Eastern migrant parents. Dubbed “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to stand up to prejudice and transformed into a celebrity world champion in the 1990s. The trainer cultivated his showboating arrogance and lethal fists, but after achieving wealth, the boxer betrayed his coach, cutting him out and making him a blend of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

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

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the film frankly lacks the Prince’s agility: the boxing sequences flow well, but the all-important drama in between is repeatedly dull 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 chance to display any subtlety or much of what might make his character truly engaging – even though he’s clearly been training and appears convincing in the ring.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is repeatedly lumbered with utilitarian, expositional lines that inform you exactly what is happening and what we are meant to feel (“You started your boxing journey at seven years old …”). This is the kind of dialogue that streaming-TV producers call “second-screen”, ensuring you understand what’s going on while you’re viewing the movie but also checking your phone. Additionally, the score is overbearing, sometimes almost overwhelming, particularly in the moment where the boxer gets overexcited calling on the promoter in his luxurious home.

Performances and Key Moments

While El-Masry and Brosnan do their considerable utmost, their relationship never really ignites, and the big set-piece boxing moments are often anticlimactically cut short. A key moment is surely when, provoked beyond endurance in the gym one day by the boxer as a misguided “old man”, Ingle actually offers to step into the ring and box him. All present in the room is stunned and uneasy. How exactly is this extremely risky confrontation going to unfold? How precisely the ending? Surely the Prince is going to defeat him? Or 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 Ingle tells a reporter what he’s teaching the kids from his neighborhood: to reject bias and when you encounter a offender, “Punch him in the bollocks”. It’s funny too when the boxer fidgets at the ridiculous stunts Ingle 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 exacerbated by a revealing publication that Ingle is allegedly authored (a story element clearly adapted from another source), and there is an intriguingly conceived final conversation – although the emotional tribute that the boxer is supposed to have given to Ingle after his passing is only referenced in the end titles, and not dramatised on screen. Some engaging content here, 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.