R | 2h 6m | Crime Drama | 2025
“Roofman” is the true story of Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum), a former U.S. Army soldier who served as a supply sergeant in Korea and at Fort Bragg in the late 1990s and early 2000s. His wife divorced him after a domestic disturbance (not shown in the movie). After he lost custody of his children, he began to slip into a life of crime.
Manchester puts his military skills—such as rappelling and tactical awareness—to work and rips off 45 different McDonald’s by breaking and entering through the roof (hence the nickname). He gets caught, goes to jail, and then uses his military skill set to break out of prison.
Jeffrey stows away inside a Toys “R” Us store, hiding in plain sight behind a partition, subsisting on peanut M&Ms, and interior-decorating himself a Spider Man-themed bedroom. He figures out how to turn off the video surveillance system, then comes and goes as he pleases for many months.
Jeffrey (Channing Tatum) on a mission to score some candy from a Toys “R’ Us shelf, in “Roofman.” (Paramount Pictures)Via the surveillance cameras, Roofman takes issue with Toys “R” Us manager Mitch’s (Peter Dinklage) heartless treatment of employee and single mom Leigh Wainscott (Kirsten Dunst). Roofman finds a way to meet her. However, all of the above obviously add up to a situation in which the center cannot hold for long, and things slowly start to fall apart.
Not Really a Crime Drama
Writer-director Derek Cianfrance has made a surprisingly heartfelt and chuckle-worthy, if slightly cheesy, crime drama. You can’t call it a crime thriller because the plot focuses only perfunctorily on Jeffrey’s run from the law.
You can’t really call it a comedy either. Apart from Jeffrey disabling the camera and tinkering around in the empty store out of sheer boredom, with a tiny bit of “Risky Business” type dancing added in because dancing is Tatum’s specialty—there’s barely any comic relief.
That said, there is one scene, when manager Mitch shows up unexpectedly while Jeffery’s in the midst of having himself a sink-shower in the restroom. It’s hands-down the funniest movie-minute of the past decade.
Manchester, trying to escape the horrified manager, flails around the store butt-nekkid, in rather compromising positions, like trying to dive over the partition wall. If you’re one of those people who can’t stop laughing once the laughing starts, you’ll find yourself, when the audience has gone quiet a few minutes later—still laughing. You’ll hear other members of the can’t-stop-laughing club also giggling helplessly. You will be crying, and your abs will ache a lot.
Cute but Ultimately Sad
“Roofman” wants the audience to sympathize with, care about, and root for Jeffrey, despite the fact that he’s a criminal, a compulsive liar, and a con artist. It’s pretty clear from the beginning that he’ll eventually get caught and that the rather sweet romance between him and Leigh can’t last.
It may be sweet, but Leigh is, after all, more than a little desperate for romance as a single mom raising two daughters (Lily Collias and Kennedy Moyer). She’s intelligent, but desperation is obviously the reason she allows herself to believe that Jeffrey works for a “secret government agency” that he can’t talk about. Jeffery is guilty of what Cuba Gooding’s character chides Tom Cruise’s character about in “Jerry Maguire”—dating single moms is “shoplifting the heart” (or words to that effect).
And so the scenes between Jeffrey and Leigh play like a schmaltzy romcom. Tatum’s humorous, charismatic vibe and Dunst’s heartfelt performance help to ground the film in much-needed authenticity, but it’s largely a caricature regardless.
“Roofman” is tonally uneven and too long for the lightweight approach. It relies on oddball-true-story quaintness, combined with Tatum and Dunst’s high-wattage star power, to pave over some of the rough spots.
Ultimately, we’re getting our arm twisted to empathize with the plight of a criminal who, despite his best intentions, keeps messing up his life. While a case is made here for his having a kind heart, Roofman’s life contained an overabundance of conning and petty thievery.
The movie version leans romantically more in the direction of an 82nd Airborne special operator type who’s probably got some PTSD going on. This leads one, perhaps unintentionally, to muse about the real fact that America is still largely incapable of helping veterans who suffer from mental and emotional trauma to successfully transition back into normal civilian society. That’s not the real story of “Roofman,” but if that’s the intended takeaway, one appreciates the artistic license.
“Roofman” opened nationwide via Paramount Pictures on Oct. 10.
‘Roofman’:
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Starring: Channing Tatum , Kirsten Dunst, Peter Dinklage, Ben Mendelsohn
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 2 hours, 6 minutes
Release Date: Oct. 10, 2025
Rating: 3 1/2 stars out of 5
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