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The movie boasts a talented cast, telling the real-life tale of coach Ingle, who mentored a cheeky Yorkshire teenager from Middle Eastern immigrant parents. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the youngster was coached to stand up to prejudice and transformed into a media-friendly titleholder in the 1990s. The trainer nurtured his flamboyant arrogance and lethal fists, but after achieving wealth, the boxer betrayed his coach, cutting him out and turning him into a mix of Falstaff and Danny Rose.

Performers and Roles

Brosnan plays Ingle; El-Masry takes on the role of Hamed, and Stephens is the assertive promoter Frank Warren, who saw the potential that Ingle had uncovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

Yet, the movie frankly lacks the fighter’s fancy footwork: the boxing sequences run smoothly, but the all-important story in between is consistently dull and monotonous. It lacks nuance or light and shade in the portrayal of the protagonist himself, and El-Masry, an otherwise excellent talent, isn’t given the chance to show any depth 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 drama is repeatedly lumbered with functional, expositional lines that inform 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 streaming-TV producers call “double-screen”, ensuring you know what’s going on while you’re viewing the movie but also glancing at your phone. Additionally, the background music is overpowering, at times nearly overwhelming, especially in the moment where Hamed gets too excited visiting the promoter in his luxurious home.

Acting and Pivotal Scenes

While the leads do their very utmost, their dynamic never really ignites, and the big set-piece boxing moments are often anticlimactically truncated. The most important scene is surely when, goaded past his limit in the training facility one day by Hamed as a delusional “elder”, the trainer in fact offers to get in the ring and box him. Everyone in the room is shocked and uncomfortable. In what way is this insanely unwise confrontation going to play out? How precisely the outcome? Surely the champion is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he emotionally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Bright Spots and Comedy

This isn’t to imply that there aren’t some good moments. Brosnan elicits humor when his character tells a reporter what he’s teaching the kids from his neighborhood: to oppose prejudice and when you meet a offender, “Hit them in the bollocks”. Amusing too when Hamed fidgets at the ridiculous stunts Ingle makes him do in the beginning: posing as the “beast from the East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

Regarding the falling out, the film shows this as being exacerbated by a tell-all book that Ingle is allegedly written (a plot point clearly modified from prior material), and there is an intriguingly imagined final conversation – although the heartfelt homage that Hamed is reportedly given to his mentor after his death is merely mentioned in the closing credits, and not dramatised on screen. Some engaging content here, but the punches don’t land.

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