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The movie features a talented cast, depicting the true story of Irish boxing trainer Brendan Ingle, who guided a brash Sheffield teenager from Middle Eastern immigrant parents. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to confront prejudice and molded into a media-friendly world champion in the 1990s. The trainer nurtured 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.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan portrays the trainer; El-Masry embodies the role of Hamed, and Toby Stephens is the bullish London promoter Warren, who saw the potential that Ingle had discovered.

Where the Movie Falls Short

Yet, the film honestly misses the fighter’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the all-important story between them is consistently dull and one-note. It lacks subtlety or contrast in the portrayal of Hamed himself, and the actor, an otherwise excellent talent, isn’t given the chance to display 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 ring.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is repeatedly burdened by functional, explanatory dialogue that tell you precisely what is going on and what we are meant to feel (“Your journey began your career at age seven …”). This is the sort of script that digital producers call “double-screen”, ensuring you understand what’s unfolding while you’re watching the movie but also checking your phone. Additionally, the score is overpowering, at times almost overwhelming, particularly in the moment where the boxer gets too excited calling on Warren in his luxurious home.

Performances and Key Moments

Although the leads do their very best, their dynamic doesn’t quite comes to life, and the big set-piece fight scenes are often disappointingly cut short. A key moment is surely when, provoked beyond endurance in the training facility one day by the boxer as a misguided “elder”, the trainer in fact proposes to step into the ring and fight him. All present in the room is shocked and uneasy. In what way is this insanely unwise standoff going to play out? How precisely the outcome? Certainly the champion is going to kill 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 nice jabs. Brosnan gets laughs when Ingle informs a journalist what he’s instructing the youths from his local community: to oppose prejudice and when you encounter a paedophile, “Punch him in the groin”. Amusing too when Hamed squirms at the ridiculous stunts Ingle makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “beast from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the rift, the film depicts this as being exacerbated by a tell-all book that the trainer is supposed to have written (a story element clearly modified from prior material), and there is an intriguingly conceived final conversation – although the emotional tribute that Hamed is supposed to have paid to his mentor after his death is merely mentioned in the closing credits, and not shown on screen. There is interesting material here, but the blows don’t land.

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