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The movie boasts a impressive cast, depicting the real-life story of coach Ingle, who mentored a cheeky Sheffield youth from Yemeni migrant family. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to stand up to racist bullies and transformed into a celebrity titleholder in the late 90s. Ingle nurtured his flamboyant confidence and powerful punches, but after achieving wealth, the boxer turned against his mentor, excluding him and making him a mix of Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Pierce Brosnan plays Ingle; El-Masry takes on the role of the prince, and Toby Stephens is the bullish London promoter Frank Warren, who recognized the potential that the coach had discovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

Yet, the movie honestly lacks the fighter’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the crucial story between them 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, isn’t given the opportunity to show any subtlety or much of what might make his role really interesting – even though he’s obviously been training and looks very plausible in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The drama is often lumbered with utilitarian, expositional dialogue that inform you precisely what is going on and what we are supposed to be thinking (“You started your boxing journey at age seven …”). This is the sort of dialogue that digital producers call “second-screen”, making sure you understand what’s unfolding while you’re viewing the movie but also glancing at your device. And, the background music is overbearing, at times almost deafening, particularly in the moment where the boxer gets overexcited calling on Warren in his palatial home.

Performances and Key Moments

While the leads do their considerable utmost, their relationship doesn’t quite ignites, and the big set-piece fight scenes are frequently anticlimactically truncated. The most important moment is surely when, provoked past his limit in the training facility one day by the boxer as a misguided “elder”, Ingle actually offers to get in the ring and fight him. Everyone in the gym is stunned and uncomfortable. How exactly is this extremely risky confrontation going to unfold? What will be the outcome? Certainly the champion is going to defeat him? Or will he sentimentally hold back? It’s not clear.

Bright Spots and Comedy

This isn’t to imply that there are no some good moments. Brosnan gets laughs when his character tells a journalist what he’s teaching the youths from his neighborhood: to oppose prejudice and when you meet a offender, “Punch him in the bollocks”. It’s funny too when Hamed fidgets at the silly stunts the coach makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “beast from the East”.

Plot and Conclusion

Regarding the falling out, the film depicts this as being worsened by a revealing book that Ingle is allegedly authored (a story element evidently adapted from another source), and there is an interestingly imagined final conversation – although the emotional tribute that the boxer is supposed to have paid to his mentor after his passing is merely referenced in the closing credits, and not dramatised on film. There is interesting material here, but the punches fail to connect.

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