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The movie boasts a talented ensemble, telling the real-life tale of Irish boxing trainer Ingle, who guided a cheeky Yorkshire youth from Yemeni migrant family. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the fighter was taught to confront racist bullies and transformed into a media-friendly titleholder in the 1990s. Ingle cultivated his flamboyant arrogance and lethal fists, but after achieving wealth, Hamed betrayed his coach, excluding him and turning him into a blend of John Falstaff and Broadway Danny Rose.

Cast and Characters

Pierce Brosnan portrays Ingle; El-Masry embodies the part of Hamed, and Toby Stephens appears as the bullish London promoter Warren, who saw the goldmine that the coach had uncovered.

Film’s Shortcomings

However, the movie frankly lacks the fighter’s fancy footwork: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the all-important story in between is consistently flat and monotonous. There is no subtlety or contrast in the portrayal of the protagonist himself, and the actor, an otherwise excellent talent, doesn’t get the chance to display any subtlety or much of what might make his character really interesting – although he’s clearly been training and looks very plausible in the boxing arena.

Dialogue and Music Issues

The story is repeatedly lumbered with functional, expositional lines that inform you precisely what is happening and what we are supposed to be thinking (“You started your career at age seven …”). It is the sort of dialogue that digital producers call “double-screen”, making sure you understand what’s unfolding while you’re watching the film but also glancing at your phone. Additionally, the score is overbearing, at times nearly deafening, particularly in the moment where Hamed gets overexcited visiting the promoter in his palatial home.

Performances and Key Moments

While the leads do their very utmost, their dynamic doesn’t quite ignites, and the major fight scenes are often disappointingly truncated. The most important moment is certainly when, goaded past his limit in the training facility one day by the boxer as a misguided “old man”, the trainer in fact proposes to step into the ring and fight him. All present in the room is stunned and uncomfortable. In what way is this insanely unwise standoff going to unfold? What will be the ending? Certainly the champion is going to defeat him? Alternatively will he emotionally pull his punches? It’s not clear.

Highlights and Humor

That’s not to say that there are no some good moments. The actor elicits humor when Ingle tells a reporter what he’s teaching the youths from his local community: to reject bias and when you meet a paedophile, “Hit them in the bollocks”. Amusing too when the boxer squirms at the ridiculous stunts the coach makes him do in the beginning: acting like the “monster from the Middle East”.

Storyline and Final Thoughts

As for the rift, the film depicts this as being worsened by a revealing publication that Ingle is allegedly written (a plot point evidently modified from another source), and there is an interestingly imagined last discussion – however the heartfelt homage that Hamed is reportedly paid to Ingle after his passing is only referenced in the end titles, and not dramatised on screen. Some interesting material in this film, but the blows don’t land.

The film screened at the festival and is in UK and Irish cinemas from 9 January.