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The movie features a impressive ensemble, depicting the true tale of coach Ingle, who guided a brash Sheffield youth from Middle Eastern migrant family. Known as Naseem Hamed, the youngster was taught to confront prejudice and transformed into a celebrity titleholder in the 1990s. The trainer nurtured his flamboyant confidence and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, Hamed betrayed his coach, cutting him out and turning him into a blend of John Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan portrays Ingle; El-Masry takes on the part of the prince, and Toby Stephens is the bullish London promoter Warren, who saw the potential that Ingle had discovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

However, the film frankly lacks the fighter’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the crucial story in between is repeatedly dull and one-note. There is no subtlety or contrast in the depiction of Hamed himself, and the actor, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the chance to display any subtlety or much of what might make his character really interesting – even though he’s obviously been working out and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is often burdened by functional, explanatory dialogue that inform you precisely what is happening and what we are supposed to be thinking (“Your journey began your boxing journey at age seven …”). This is the kind of dialogue that streaming-TV producers call “second-screen”, ensuring you know what’s unfolding while you’re viewing the movie but also checking your phone. And, the score is overpowering, at times almost deafening, especially in the moment where the boxer gets overexcited calling on Warren in his luxurious residence.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

Although the leads do their considerable best, their dynamic doesn’t quite comes to life, and the big set-piece fight scenes are frequently anticlimactically truncated. The most important moment is surely when, goaded past his limit in the gym one day by Hamed as a delusional “elder”, the trainer in fact offers to step into the ring and fight him. Everyone in the room is stunned and uneasy. How exactly is this insanely unwise standoff going to unfold? What will be the ending? Certainly the champion is going to kill him? Alternatively will he emotionally hold back? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Bright Spots and Comedy

This isn’t to imply that there aren’t some good moments. The actor gets laughs when his character tells a journalist what he’s instructing the youths from his neighborhood: to oppose bias and when you meet a paedophile, “Hit them in the bollocks”. Amusing too when Hamed squirms at the ridiculous stunts the coach makes him do in the early days: posing as the “monster from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the falling out, the film depicts this as being exacerbated by a revealing book that Ingle is supposed to have authored (a plot point evidently adapted from another source), and there is an intriguingly imagined last discussion – although the heartfelt homage that Hamed is reportedly paid to his mentor after his death is merely mentioned in the end titles, and not dramatised on screen. Some engaging content in this film, but the punches don’t land.

The film was shown at the London film festival and is available in British and Irish cinemas from January 9.