This film boasts a impressive cast, depicting the real-life tale of coach Brendan Ingle, who mentored a brash Sheffield teenager from Middle Eastern migrant family. Dubbed Naseem Hamed, the fighter was coached to confront racist bullies and molded into a media-friendly world champion in the 1990s. Ingle cultivated his flamboyant arrogance and lethal fists, but after becoming rich, Hamed betrayed his coach, excluding him and turning him into a mix of Falstaff and Danny Rose.
Performers and Roles
Pierce Brosnan portrays the trainer; El-Masry takes on the role of Hamed, and Toby Stephens is the bullish promoter Frank Warren, who saw the goldmine that Ingle had uncovered.
Film’s Shortcomings
However, the film honestly misses the fighter’s agility: the fight scenes run smoothly, but the crucial drama between them is consistently dull and one-note. There is no nuance or light and shade in the depiction of the protagonist himself, and the actor, an otherwise outstanding performer, doesn’t get the chance to display any depth or much of what might make his role truly engaging – although he’s clearly been training and appears convincing in the boxing arena.
Problems with Script and Sound
The story is often lumbered with functional, expositional lines that inform you exactly what is happening and what we are meant to feel (“You started your boxing journey at age seven …”). This is the sort of script that digital executives call “second-screen”, making sure you understand what’s unfolding while you’re viewing the movie but also glancing at your device. Additionally, the score is overpowering, sometimes almost overwhelming, particularly in the moment where Hamed gets too excited calling on the promoter in his luxurious residence.
Performances and Key Moments
Although El-Masry and Brosnan do their very best, their dynamic doesn’t quite comes to life, and the major boxing moments are often disappointingly cut short. The most important scene is surely when, provoked past his limit in the gym one day by the boxer as a misguided “old man”, the trainer actually proposes to step into the ring and box him. All present in the room is stunned and uncomfortable. In what way is this extremely risky confrontation going to play out? How precisely the outcome? Surely the Prince is going to kill him? Alternatively will he sentimentally pull his punches? The resolution remains ambiguous.
Bright Spots and Comedy
That’s not to say that there are no some nice jabs. Brosnan gets laughs when his character informs a reporter what he’s teaching the youths from his neighborhood: to oppose bias and when you meet a offender, “Hit them in the groin”. It’s funny too when Hamed fidgets at the ridiculous stunts 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 movie depicts this as being exacerbated by a revealing book that the trainer is supposed to have written (a plot point evidently adapted from another source), and there is an interestingly conceived final conversation – although the heartfelt homage 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. Some engaging content here, but the blows fail to connect.
The film was shown at the festival and is in UK and Irish theaters from 9 January.
