I’m a Toys “R” Us kid with this movie.
When we see Channing Tatum robbing a McDonalds and suggesting that the franchise never notice some missing money, it relaxes me because I hate McDonalds. His latest vehicle “Roofman” tells the story of Jeffrey Manchester (there’s that Tatum), a US Army Reserve non-commission officer, who resorted to breaking into places like McDonalds by drilling holes in their roofs to provide for his family. He’s given the nickname Rooftop Robber or simply Roofman, and this true story took place in 2004 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
He may had guns with him, but at least he was polite with the hostages. But the law is the law. You know how it is. And you know how he has to make bad choices.
After getting caught by the police and sentenced to 45 years, Jeffrey manages to pull a Steven Soderbergh-like escape plan, and hides out in the nearest Toys “R” Us store. He hides in the ceiling and then he finds another place where nobody would even think to look for him.
That’s where we get Peter Dinklage as the jerky manager, Kirstin Dunst as a divorced mother with an unfair schedule, Emory Cohen as a pushover, and Jeffrey doing some “Risky Business” moves without the security cameras recording. He manages to turn them off when it’s closing time, and that means he can grab toys and Spider-Man blankets to sleep with, a baby monitor to overhear the employees, and the opportunity to help with some scheduling conflicts.
He meets Dunst’s Leigh Wainscott, the local pastor (Ben Mendolsohn), and his wife (Uzo Aduba) under his fake name John Zorn. This is when Leigh becomes a love interest for him, and this is where we get the cliches of the her teenage daughter Lindsey (Lily Collias) being at a certain stage in her life. The kind when she can be a jerk to her mother, because of how she starts dating John. At the very least, it doesn’t last very long.
And then, there’s LaKeith Stanfield in a better film than “Play Dirty” as Jeffrey’s friend, who knows about his prison escape and crimes. You better believe he reluctant to help him, especially when he has a new spouse (Juno Temple). There’s a lot of things you better believe.
Written and directed by Derek Cianfrance (“The Place Beyond the Pines,” “Blue Valentine”), “Roofman” lags in the middle with the mother-daughter subplot, but it starts off comical and continues with some energy. The real Jeffrey Manchester was 33-years-old at the time, and Tatum must be an ageless guy if he’s 45. It takes me back to “21 Jump Street,” when he was posing as a high school student, and the Ellie Kemper teacher thought he was hot. He must be a 6’2 Rob Lowe at this point in his life. And we get one of these picture comparisons with the real Jeffrey and movie Jeffrey.
The cinematography by Andrij Parekh (who also collaborated with Cianfrance before on “Blue Valentine”) makes the film look like it’s from the 2000s with some fuzzy looking images and those slow zoom ins. And it manages to help with the quirkiness and seriousness.
Cianfrance has mostly directed dramas, so it’s nice to see him have a sense of humor with “Roofman.” It’s a shame that Darren Aronofsky’s comedic turn of “Caught Stealing” didn’t get much commercial success, and I’m not sure how the public with handle with this movie. I’m still bored by the center, but the first and third acts are enough for me to say: I had a fun time or I’m a Toys “R” Us kid with this movie.
