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This film features a talented ensemble, telling the real-life tale of coach Brendan Ingle, who mentored a cheeky Yorkshire youth from Middle Eastern immigrant parents. Dubbed “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the youngster was coached to stand up to racist bullies and molded into a celebrity titleholder in the 1990s. The trainer cultivated his flamboyant arrogance and powerful punches, but after becoming rich, the boxer betrayed his coach, excluding him and turning him into a blend of John Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Brosnan plays Ingle; El-Masry embodies the role of Hamed, and Toby Stephens is the assertive London promoter Frank Warren, who recognized the potential that the coach had discovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the film frankly misses the Prince’s agility: the boxing sequences flow well, but the all-important story between them is consistently dull and one-note. It lacks nuance or light and shade in the depiction of Hamed himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the opportunity to show any subtlety or much of what might make his character really interesting – although he’s clearly been training and appears convincing in the ring.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is often lumbered with functional, explanatory dialogue that inform you exactly what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your career at seven years old …”). It is the sort of dialogue that streaming-TV executives call “second-screen”, ensuring you know what’s going on while you’re viewing the film but also checking your device. Additionally, the background music is overpowering, at times almost overwhelming, especially in the scene where Hamed gets too excited calling on the promoter in his palatial residence.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

Although the leads do their very utmost, their relationship never really ignites, and the big set-piece boxing moments are often anticlimactically cut short. The most important scene is surely when, goaded past his limit in the gym one day by Hamed as a misguided “old man”, the trainer actually proposes to step into the ring and fight him. Everyone in the room is stunned and uneasy. In what way is this extremely unwise confrontation going to play out? What will be the ending? Certainly the Prince is going to kill him? Or will he sentimentally hold back? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Highlights and Humor

That’s not to say that there are no some good moments. The actor elicits humor when his character informs a reporter what he’s teaching the kids from his neighborhood: to reject prejudice and when you meet a offender, “Hit them in the groin”. It’s funny too when Hamed squirms at the ridiculous antics Ingle makes him do in the early days: posing as the “beast from the Middle East”.

Plot and Conclusion

Regarding the falling out, the film depicts this as being exacerbated by a tell-all publication that Ingle is supposed to have written (a plot point clearly modified from another source), and there is an interestingly imagined last discussion – although the emotional tribute that Hamed is supposed to have given to his mentor after his death is merely mentioned in the closing credits, and not shown on screen. There is interesting material in this film, but the punches fail to connect.

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