The scope of Channing Tatum’s charismatic powers fuels Roofer (now streaming on Paramount+, in addition to VOD platforms like Amazon Prime Video), a somewhat stranger-than-fiction BOATS (Based On A True Story) film about a real-life criminal who robbed places by cutting off their roofs. He was also quite friendly with the McDonald’s employees he locked in the freezer and lived in a cabinet in a Toys ‘R’ Us store for a while after his escape from prison. Yeah, that’s quite a story. The film also marks the return of filmmaker Derek Cianfrance, best known for his beautifully filmed misery dramas. Valentine’s Day Blue And The place Beyond the Pinesfor his first directorial effort since 2016 The light between the oceans; apparently a comedy, Roofer is her most beloved effort, but with dark enough bangs to match her MO
COOKER: Stream it or ignore it?
The bottom line: In a heist movie, Jeffrey Manchester (Tatum) would be the man in the case, the one who monitors the context of the potential crime, developing a plan that exploits the smallest details of the routines, for example, when the bank has the most money, where the blind spots of the security cameras are, the routines of the security guards, etc. Jeffrey knows that McDonald’s restaurants have the most money in their safes first thing in the morning, so he cuts holes in their roofs, hiding from the first employees. arrives, steals them, then kindly leads them into the walk-in freezer, making sure they wear their coats first so they don’t get too cold. We meet Jeffrey in the middle of one of these heists, and when the McD manager doesn’t have a jacket to wear in the freezer, Jeffrey takes his off and hands it to him. Sweet guy. Thoughtful. Too bad he’s a scammer, right?
Jeffrey was inspired by desperation. He couldn’t afford a new bike for his daughter’s birthday and seems to be struggling after a stint in the military, a vague struggle that doesn’t seem to determine whether he can’t find a job or is just a restless guy who just can’t find work. to want a job. Regardless, he’s a smart, observant guy who just wants to do right by his wife and three kids and so wonders how many times he’ll have to break into a Mickey D’s before he can give them a decent life. “Turns out the answer is 45,” Jeffrey says in voiceover, then the film cuts to television news reports about a serial thief who is “terrorizing” his community of Charlotte, North Carolina. He finally gives the bike to his daughter, and almost at the same time, the cops arrive and chase him with a pink feather boa fluttering around his neck. His sentence is 45 years, and that is an extremely long time.
Too long. Eventually, Jeffrey concocts an ingenious plan to smuggle himself out of prison via the undercarriage of a tractor-trailer. He sits on the street and watches his daughter ride her bike from afar while a police officer watches her. The PDB is there. He tries not to act suspiciously while walking the streets, eventually running into a Toys “R” Us after a cop spots him. Jeffrey enters the men’s room, climbs to the ceiling and waits for the end. When the store closes for the night, he goes up to the manager’s office and figures out how to stop the cameras from recording and eventually finds a large hollow display where he throws a few crib mattresses and a big stuffed Spider-Man so he won’t be alone; after a few days of eating peanut M&Ms, he installs his own security system with baby monitors. It’s the perfect place to hide out for six months while waiting for her military buddy Steve (LaKeith Stanfield) to come back to town and help her concoct a fake passport so she can leave the country.
In his little nest, Jeffrey spends part of the day monitoring employees on the screens. The manager, Mitch (Peter Dinklage), is a human jerk who has no problem asserting his authority and being condescending to his employees. One of them is Leigh (Kirsten Dunst), who is upset when Mitch refuses to donate to her church’s charitable toy drive. So Jeffrey steals some toys and a bike and goes to make a donation – and meets a woman who is visibly mollified by the sight of a tall, handsome, witty gentleman, and drags her to attend a deeply cheesy service, where he is paired with single, recently divorced, smiling, sparkling-eyed Leigh. There’s a great moment where Jeffrey attends a church “singles brunch” at Red Lobster and he’s the guest of honor to a dozen ladies hoping to get an eyeful. He and Leigh are dating. They sleep together. He meets and charms his daughters. He tells him that his name is John Zorn (is that a reference for all avant-garde jazzmen?) and that he has a secret government job that doesn’t allow him to talk about it or know where he lives. He falls in love and plays with fire, but hey, that’s a much nicer way to spend six months than beating the batteries on Tickle Me Elmo dolls. It just wasn’t a particularly constructive way to express frustration.
What films will this remind you of? : Most deliciously ironic fact from the real life story of Jeffrey Manchester, and I really hope Wikipedia is right with this one: one clue that led to his capture was a fingerprint on a DVD of Catch me if you can. So cross that with Secret Mall Apartment And Risky businesswhich Roofer winking references.
Performances to watch: You gotta love it when Tatum gets all dramatic – see also: Dog, Fox catcher and obviously the G.I. Joe films, especially the one with the nanobots – and Roofer It’s perhaps the most emotionally complex role of his career, playing a good man with an apparent compulsion to do bad things, and it’s a performance that will gently break your heart.
Memorable dialogues: Steve assesses Jeffrey’s abilities to commit crimes: “You’ve done the math, but you’re just… clumsy.”
Sex and skin: Where have I seen Tatum’s butt before? Have we ever seen them in all their glory in the Magic Mikes? I don’t remember it anymore. Anyway, here they are. Featuring brief upper body nudity and a tame sex scene.
Our opinion: Roofer is largely an effort by Tatum and Dunst. Their alchemical interactions give the film the punch it needs, so it’s not just a what-is-the-crazy-gonna-do-next movie; Part of us hopes that the madman can find a way to make the love story part of this crime story functionally happily ever after. But another part of us wants to see him put on the metaphorical piece of flesh for inflicting trauma on so many people via his selfish actions. Be grateful that Dunst ultimately crushes our sympathies by turning in a thoroughly adorable performance despite the character’s relative fragility – she is brilliant as an exquisite woman who carries a little joy and a little pain on her face at all times. She not only gives the film the moral grounding it needs – there’s no Bonnie in Leigh to enable Jeffrey’s Clyde – but she gives us access to some of the story’s deepest emotional conflicts.
As entertaining as the film is, Cianfrance and Kirt Gunn’s script is admittedly a little thin. More screen time gives Dunst the opportunity to deepen his character in a way that the writing doesn’t allow, but supporting players Stanfield, Dinklage, Juno Temple, and Ben Mendelsohn are largely underused. The director also tends to flatten the tone toward generic accessibility, to even out Jeffrey’s character’s tendencies toward extreme sentimentality and outrageous compulsive behavior. I’m happy to report that this isn’t a rote Jekyll and Hyde story, but Cianfrance’s approach to the material – despite his gently artistic visual approach, with handheld cameras and gritty, realistic suburban middle-class settings – is relatively stock in its approach, and results in a story that’s less heavy and complicated than it probably should be.
But Roofer benefits from Tatum and Dunst’s ability to find and exploit the heart of the narrative. It’s a film that flirts with ideas of despair and consumerism – it’s essentially about Jeffrey learning that his presence is more valuable than his gifts, and thankfully the script stops just short of expressing it in those exact terms, but it explains it anyway. It’s a classic case of two stars raising matter. It’s also a neoclassical case of a story in which a guy whose face was in the news for a week or three was essentially forgotten, unrecognized by the community despite his notoriety. The film is set in the mid-2000s, and one can’t help but argue that if it was set in the middle of the fractured attention span of 2025, it would only have to hide in a Toys “R” Us for 20 minutes before moving on to the next title and letting it get away with its shit.
Our call: Dunst and Tatum bring Roofer to life. Spread it.
How to watch Roofer
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John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
