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This film features a talented cast, telling the true story of Irish boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, who guided a cheeky Yorkshire youth from Yemeni migrant family. Known as “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to stand up to racist bullies and transformed into a media-friendly titleholder in the 1990s. The trainer nurtured his flamboyant arrogance and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, Hamed betrayed his coach, cutting him out and making him a mix of John Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Brosnan portrays the trainer; El-Masry takes on the part of the prince, and Stephens appears as the bullish promoter Warren, who recognized the goldmine that the coach had discovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

However, the film honestly lacks the Prince’s agility: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the crucial story in between is repeatedly flat and monotonous. There is no nuance 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 subtlety or much of what might make his role really interesting – although he’s obviously been training and looks very plausible in the ring.

Problems with Script and Sound

The story is often burdened by functional, expositional dialogue that inform you precisely what is happening and what we are supposed to be thinking (“You started your career at seven years old …”). This is the kind of script that digital producers call “second-screen”, making sure you understand what’s unfolding while you’re viewing the movie but also checking your device. Additionally, the score is overpowering, at times nearly deafening, particularly in the scene where Hamed gets overexcited visiting the promoter in his luxurious residence.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

Although the leads do their very utmost, their dynamic never really comes to life, and the major boxing moments are often anticlimactically truncated. The most important scene is surely when, provoked past his limit in the training facility one day by Hamed as a delusional “old man”, the trainer in fact offers to step into the ring and fight him. All present in the room is shocked and uneasy. How exactly is this extremely unwise standoff going to play out? How precisely the ending? Surely the champion is going to kill him? Or will he emotionally hold back? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Bright Spots and Comedy

This isn’t to imply that there aren’t some nice jabs. Brosnan gets laughs when Ingle tells a reporter what he’s instructing the kids from his neighborhood: to reject prejudice and when you encounter a paedophile, “Punch him in the bollocks”. It’s funny too when the boxer squirms at the silly stunts Ingle makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “monster from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the falling out, the film depicts this as being worsened by a tell-all publication that Ingle is supposed to have written (a story element evidently modified from prior material), and there is an intriguingly imagined last discussion – although the emotional tribute that Hamed is reportedly given to his mentor after his passing is merely mentioned in the closing credits, and not dramatised on film. There is interesting material here, but the punches don’t land.

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