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This film boasts a impressive cast, depicting the real-life story of Irish boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, who mentored a cheeky Yorkshire teenager from Yemeni migrant family. Known as Naseem Hamed, the youngster was taught to stand up to prejudice and molded into a media-friendly world champion in the late 90s. The trainer cultivated his showboating arrogance and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, Hamed betrayed his coach, excluding him and turning him into a mix of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Brosnan plays the trainer; El-Masry takes on the part of Hamed, and Stephens appears as the assertive promoter Warren, who recognized the goldmine that Ingle had discovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

Yet, the film honestly misses the Prince’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences flow well, but the crucial story between them is repeatedly flat and one-note. There is no nuance or light and shade in the depiction of Hamed himself, and the actor, an otherwise excellent talent, isn’t given the chance to show any subtlety or much of what might make his role truly engaging – even though he’s clearly been training and looks very plausible in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The drama is often lumbered with functional, explanatory dialogue that tell you precisely what is happening and what we are supposed to be thinking (“You started your career at seven years old …”). It is the kind of dialogue that digital executives call “double-screen”, making sure you understand what’s unfolding while you’re watching the film but also checking your phone. And, the score is overbearing, at times nearly overwhelming, particularly in the scene where Hamed gets overexcited calling on the promoter in his palatial home.

Performances and Key Moments

Although the leads do their very best, their dynamic doesn’t quite comes to life, and the big set-piece fight scenes are frequently disappointingly cut short. A key scene is certainly when, goaded beyond endurance in the training facility one day by the boxer as a misguided “old man”, the trainer in fact offers to step into the ring and box him. Everyone in the gym is shocked and uneasy. How exactly is this extremely risky confrontation going to unfold? How precisely the ending? Surely the champion is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he sentimentally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Bright Spots and Comedy

This isn’t to imply that there are no some nice jabs. Brosnan elicits humor when his character tells a reporter what he’s teaching the youths from his neighborhood: to oppose bias and when you encounter a paedophile, “Punch him in the groin”. It’s funny too when Hamed fidgets at the silly antics the coach makes him do in the early days: posing as the “beast from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the falling out, the film shows this as being worsened by a revealing book that the trainer is supposed to have written (a plot point clearly adapted from another source), and there is an interestingly imagined last discussion – although the emotional tribute that the boxer is reportedly paid to his mentor after his death is merely referenced in the closing credits, and not shown on screen. Some interesting material here, but the blows fail to connect.

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