Roofman is one of those “too crazy not to be true” stories. It is based on the real-life spree robber Jeffrey Manchester who hid out in a Toys “R” Us after escaping from prison. And if you think that’s wild, that’s barely half the story. I hadn’t really heard much about the film before seeing it, but what I did hear was positive and the story intrigued me. Also, you can’t really go wrong with Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst. The movie was both exactly what I wanted it to be and also surprised me. It was funny and cute and light but grounded at the same time. It blends comedic moments without treating the main character like a joke and doesn’t paint him as a hero but also provides insight into his motives. While the themes can get heavy if you really start to think about it, Roofman is mostly a fun, easy watch with a throwback vibe. 

In 1998 in North Carolina, Jeffrey Manchester was dubbed “The Roofman” by the media after he began breaking into McDonald’s restaurants via the roof. Manchester would smash a hole in the roof, lower himself down, and then wait there until morning when the employees showed up and he’d force them into the walk-in freezer at gunpoint and empty the cash register. What did the victims remember most? How polite he was to them. “The Roofman” robbed over 45 McDonald’s (or similar fast food chains) before getting caught. The movie kicks off right about there. We get a little back story of Manchester (played by Channing Tatum) that tells us how he got to this place. He’s a divorced Army vet trying to provide for his three children while struggling to hold down a job with skills that made him a great soldier but a sub-par employee. His friend and fellow soldier, Steve (LaKeith Stanfield), tells Jeff that his greatest talent is observation. This leads him to the McDonald’s plan, which gets him momentarily back on his feet… until it all comes crashing down and he’s slapped with a lengthy prison sentence. And then the real story starts. In 2004, Jeffrey Manchester broke out of prison and spent six months hiding out in a Toys “R” Us. The bulk of the movie follows Jeffrey’s time as a fugitive. We see him start to carve out a new life for himself, building up his hidden space into a little living area and eventually venturing into the outside world where he finds friends and a new family with a local woman and Toys “R” Us employee Leigh Wainscott (Kirsten Dunst). Now going by “John”, Jeffrey allows himself to be happy with Leigh and her daughters and her church community. Leigh doesn’t recognize Jeffrey from the news and neither does anyone at her church or anyone else they come in contact with. In some ways, it strains credulity slightly, but at the same time, I don’t watch the news. If they showed someone’s mug shot, I would have no idea if I saw them in person. However, the sweetness of “John” and Leigh’s romance is always undercut by the knowledge that it can’t last. Eventually, Jeffrey’s past, and the truth-bomb that comes along with it, will catch up to him. 

Roofman strikes a delicate balance with its tone. It’s technically a true-crime story as it retells the story of a criminal, but it’s not at all harrowing in the way the genre typically presents. It’s much more of a comedy with plenty of goofiness and physical comedy that got lots of laughs in my theater. But it’s also a tragedy in many ways and a character study of a broken man. The filmmakers never try to justify Jeffrey’s illegal actions, but they do make us empathize with him and understand what drove him to his crime spree. They make us root for the “bad guy”. Jeffrey is a man who feels useless in the world and just wants to do whatever it takes to support his family. Whether that’s his biological children or the new family he creates with Leigh, Jeffrey is motivated by a desire to provide. He’s motivated by a desire to have and hold onto a family. He just wants to be a girl dad. But he just can’t help but to self-sabotage over and over again. I found myself constantly hoping he would make the right decisions to save himself, but I knew it couldn’t end that way for him. All credit to director Derek Cianfrance for not allowing the movie to completely tip over into the dark and melodramatic. It’s mostly funny, but also affecting and sincere and bittersweet. Cianfrance is most well-known for moody films with grand themes of working-class struggles, masculinity, doomed romance, and crushed ambitions like Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines. His first feature film in nine years, Roofman carries over many of those themes but depicts them from a new perspective. There’s still a throughline of sadness, but Cianfrance also makes space for lightness, comedy, and romance.  

Sean Fennessey of The Big Picture podcast described the movie as simply, “a film about a fuckup”. It’s true. Jeffrey is a fuckup. He’s a good criminal, but a bad liar. And intelligent in some ways but also careless and rash. In the film, a prison guard tells a news reporter of Jeffrey, “He’s a very smart individual, probably genius level. He’s also a complete idiot.” So is the paradox of Jeffrey. He wants to be good and do good but just doesn’t know how. He’s completely frustrating to watch as a character. Thankfully, Channing Tatum plays him so perfectly charming and awkward, you can’t help but find him endearing. Even when he makes aggravating or odd choices. Like coming on extremely strong to Leigh and her kids. You want to be perturbed, but Tatum brings such heart and depth to the role you understand and empathize with Jeffrey’s desire for family and to be loved. There’s no hint of deviousness or manipulation or ego. He is brimming with sincerity and openness… despite the fact that he is harboring quite a few secrets. But that doesn’t change the genuine nature of his soul. That also allows him to have such real chemistry with Kirsten Dunst’s Leigh. In a sometimes goofy film, Dunst is always grounded. Both guarded and cautious, having been recently divorced, and also open and idealistic, still wanting to believe in love and believe in Jeffrey. Her romantic nature often clouds her judgement, although she still seems smart enough to never fully shake the notion that there’s something suspicious about Jeff (or John, as she knows him). The supporting cast is all fantastic as well. LaKeith Stanfield is entertaining comedic relief and also a dose of reality as Jeffrey’s friend Steve. Juno Temple is funny as well as Steve’s girlfriend, Michelle. Peter Dinklage is the terrible boss we love to hate. And Ben Mendelsohn and Uzo Aduba are delightful as the pastor and his wife at Leigh’s church.

I don’t know if it was the 2004 setting of the movie, but it really did feel like a movie from that era, not just about it. The cinematography has a kind of vintage look and details like the technology and even just the Toys “R” Us put us in the time period. But it’s more than that. It’s the storytelling and the feeling it evokes. Jeffrey living in the store reminded me of scenes from Elf (2003) and Big Fat Liar (2002). Someone on Letterboxd classified the film as a “deception comedy” like School of Rock (2003) and others compared it to Catch Me If You Can (2002). Even the film’s leads were breaking out as major movie stars right in this time period with Kirsten Dunst in Bring It On (2000) and Spider-Man (2002) and Channing Tatum in She’s the Man (2006) and Step Up (2006). Through cues both overt and more subliminal, Roofman transports us back to the early 2000s which is probably why I enjoyed it so much. That is, in my opinion, a peak movie era. Roofman doesn’t exactly measure up to some of those highlights (and it’s probably 20 minutes too long), but it was still a fun, satisfying watch that I would definitely recommend.

P.S. Reiterating again here, all movies about real people should include their pictures in the credits so I don’t have to Google it myself. Roofman goes the extra mile and, in addition to real pictures and news footage from the time, the credits also include present-day interviews with some of the people involved, like the real Leigh Wainscott. So interesting to see and a really fun coda to the film.