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This film boasts a talented ensemble, telling the real-life tale of coach Ingle, who guided a brash Yorkshire teenager from Yemeni immigrant parents. Known as Naseem Hamed, the youngster was taught to confront prejudice and transformed into a media-friendly titleholder in the late 90s. Ingle cultivated his flamboyant confidence and lethal fists, but after achieving wealth, the boxer turned against his coach, cutting him out and making him a mix of John Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Pierce Brosnan plays the trainer; Amir El-Masry takes on the part of the prince, and Stephens is the bullish promoter Frank Warren, who recognized the goldmine that Ingle had uncovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the film honestly lacks the fighter’s agility: the boxing sequences flow well, but the all-important drama between them is repeatedly flat and monotonous. There is no nuance or contrast in the depiction of the protagonist himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the chance to display any subtlety or much of what might make his role really interesting – although he’s clearly been working out and appears convincing in the boxing arena.

Problems with Script and Sound

The story is repeatedly burdened by functional, explanatory dialogue that inform you exactly what is going on and what we are supposed to be thinking (“Your journey began your boxing journey at age seven …”). This is the sort of script that streaming-TV producers call “double-screen”, making sure you understand what’s unfolding while you’re watching the movie but also checking your phone. Additionally, the background music is overpowering, at times nearly overwhelming, particularly in the moment where the boxer gets overexcited visiting Warren in his palatial residence.

Performances and Key Moments

Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their very utmost, their relationship doesn’t quite ignites, and the major boxing moments are frequently disappointingly truncated. The most important moment is certainly when, goaded beyond endurance in the training facility one day by the boxer as a delusional “elder”, the trainer in fact offers to get in the ring and fight him. All present in the room is shocked and uneasy. How exactly is this extremely risky standoff going to play out? How precisely the outcome? Certainly the champion is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he emotionally pull his punches? The resolution remains ambiguous.

Highlights and Humor

That’s not to say that there are no some good moments. The actor elicits humor when his character tells a reporter what he’s teaching the youths from his neighborhood: to oppose bias and when you meet a offender, “Hit them in the bollocks”. It’s funny too when Hamed squirms at the ridiculous antics the coach makes him do in the early days: posing as the “monster from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

As for the falling out, the film depicts this as being exacerbated by a tell-all book that Ingle is allegedly authored (a story element clearly adapted from prior material), and there is an intriguingly imagined last discussion – although the heartfelt homage that the boxer is reportedly given to his mentor after his passing is merely mentioned in the end titles, and not dramatised on film. Some engaging content here, but the blows don’t land.

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