🔗 Share this article

This film features a impressive cast, depicting the real-life story of Irish boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, who mentored a cheeky Yorkshire teenager from Middle Eastern immigrant family. Dubbed “Prince” Naseem Hamed, the youngster was coached to confront racist bullies and transformed into a media-friendly titleholder in the late 90s. The trainer nurtured his flamboyant arrogance and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, Hamed turned against his mentor, excluding him and making him a mix of John Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan plays Ingle; El-Masry embodies the part of Hamed, and Toby Stephens is the bullish promoter Frank Warren, who recognized the goldmine that Ingle had uncovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

Yet, the movie honestly misses the Prince’s agility: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the all-important drama between them is consistently flat and monotonous. It lacks subtlety or contrast in the portrayal of Hamed himself, and the actor, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the opportunity to show any depth 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, explanatory dialogue that inform you exactly what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your boxing journey at seven years old …”). It is the kind of script that streaming-TV producers call “double-screen”, making sure you understand what’s going on while you’re viewing the film but also glancing at your phone. Additionally, the background music is overpowering, sometimes nearly overwhelming, especially in the scene where the boxer gets overexcited visiting Warren in his luxurious residence.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

Although the leads do their very best, their dynamic never really comes to life, and the major fight scenes are frequently disappointingly truncated. A key scene is certainly when, provoked 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 fight him. Everyone in the gym is shocked and uneasy. In what way is this insanely risky confrontation going to unfold? How precisely the outcome? Certainly the Prince is going to kill him? Or will he emotionally hold back? It’s not clear.

Highlights and Humor

That’s not to say that there aren’t some nice jabs. Brosnan gets laughs when Ingle informs a journalist what he’s teaching the youths from his neighborhood: to oppose prejudice and when you meet a paedophile, “Hit them in the bollocks”. It’s funny too when the boxer fidgets at the silly stunts Ingle makes him do in the early days: posing as the “monster from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the rift, the film depicts this as being worsened by a revealing book that the trainer is supposed to have authored (a plot point evidently adapted from another source), and there is an interestingly imagined last discussion – although the emotional tribute that Hamed is supposed to have given to Ingle after his passing is merely referenced in the end titles, and not shown on film. There is engaging content in this film, but the punches fail to connect.

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