🔗 Share this article

The movie boasts a talented ensemble, telling the true tale of Irish boxing trainer Ingle, who mentored a cheeky Yorkshire youth from Middle Eastern immigrant family. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the youngster was taught to stand up to racist bullies and molded into a celebrity titleholder in the 1990s. Ingle nurtured his showboating arrogance and powerful punches, but after becoming rich, the boxer betrayed his coach, excluding him and making him a blend of Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Pierce Brosnan portrays Ingle; El-Masry embodies the part of Hamed, and Toby Stephens appears as the assertive promoter Frank Warren, who recognized the goldmine that the coach had discovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the film frankly lacks the Prince’s agility: the fight scenes flow well, but the all-important drama in between is consistently flat and monotonous. It lacks subtlety or contrast in the portrayal of the protagonist himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise outstanding performer, isn’t given the opportunity to show any subtlety or much of what might make his role truly engaging – even though he’s obviously been working out and looks very plausible in the boxing arena.

Problems with Script and Sound

The story is repeatedly burdened by functional, expositional lines that inform you exactly what is going on and what we are supposed to be thinking (“Your journey began your career at age seven …”). It is the sort of script that digital producers call “double-screen”, ensuring you know what’s unfolding while you’re watching the film but also checking your phone. Additionally, the score is overpowering, sometimes nearly overwhelming, especially in the scene where Hamed gets too excited visiting the promoter in his palatial residence.

Performances and Key Moments

Although the leads do their considerable best, their dynamic doesn’t quite comes to life, and the major fight scenes are often anticlimactically cut short. The most important scene is certainly when, goaded beyond endurance in the training facility one day by Hamed as a misguided “elder”, the trainer in fact proposes to get in the ring and box him. Everyone in the gym is stunned and uneasy. How exactly is this insanely risky confrontation going to play out? What will be the outcome? Certainly the champion is going to defeat him? Or will he emotionally hold back? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Bright Spots and Comedy

This isn’t to imply that there are no some good moments. The actor gets laughs when his character tells a reporter what he’s instructing the youths from his neighborhood: to oppose bias and when you encounter a paedophile, “Punch him in the bollocks”. Amusing too when the boxer squirms at the ridiculous antics the coach makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “beast from the Middle East”.

Plot and Conclusion

Regarding the falling out, the movie shows this as being exacerbated by a tell-all book that Ingle is allegedly authored (a plot point evidently modified from another source), and there is an interestingly conceived last discussion – although the emotional tribute that the boxer is reportedly paid to Ingle after his passing is merely referenced in the end titles, and not shown on film. Some interesting material in this film, but the blows don’t land.

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