Prizefighter: a biopic on the ropes

The real-life story of Jem Belcher, who became, at age 19, the youngest-ever prizefighting Champion of England – a record that’s never yet been broken – would make a powerful and gripping movie. Regrettably, this isn’t quite it.

The film’s deficiencies may be at least partly due to its troubled genesis. Matt Hookings, who plays Belcher besides scripting and co-producing, was born in Newport, Wales, and hoped to make the film – which would feature his first lead role – in his native city. Production plans were well advanced, with parts of Newport’s Westgate Hotel already transformed into an early 19th-century Mayfair club, complete with full-size boxing ring, when the Welsh government agency Creative Wales decided not to fund the film. The production was forced to switch to Lithuania, with some funding secured from the Malta Film Commission. There’ve also been reports of disputes and in-fighting during post-production, exacerbated by threats of legal action. (No fewer than thirty people are credited in various ‘producer’ capacities – never a good sign.)

It could also be that Hookings took on rather too many roles. (Along with his several other duties, he also reworked some of the editing.) Prizefighter is his first feature as solo screenwriter, and it’s in the scripting that the film loses traction. The story arc is predictable – aspiration, early success, triumph, social adulation, downfall, defeat – and the dialogue features far too many plonkingly well-worn lines such as “The eyes are the windows to a man’s soul”. A lighter hand in the script might well have helped – perhaps that of director Daniel Graham, whose teasingly ludic screenplays for his two previous features (Opus Zero, 2017; and The Obscure Life of the Grand Duke of Corsica, 2021, in which Hookings played Francis of Assisi) did much to enhance their offbeat appeal. But this time round, Graham has no script credit.

There’s no denying, though, that the film looks handsome – especially in the episodes set in London society, where cinematographer Ben Braham Ziryab creates a decadent palette of dark reds and lush browns. In the fight scenes his agile camera ducks and weaves, abetting the fighters in their gory brutality, while a choice cast includes Russell Crowe as Jem’s granddad Jack, who sets him on his pugilistic path; Jodhi May as his sad-eyed mother; and Ray Winstone as his canny manager and trainer Bill Warr. Hookings dives deep into the title role with relish and unquestioning conviction. But after all, it’s in the blood: by the river Usk in Newport, a stone’s throw from the Westgate Hotel, stands the bronze statue of Hookings’s father, former British Heavyweight Boxing Champion David ‘Bomber’ Pearce.

► Prizefighter can be viewed on Amazon Prime from 22 July.