Roofman (Jeffrey Manchester, a.k.a. Roofman, played by Channing Tatum) is a comedy, romance, drama that breaks through the mind’s ceiling to steal the heart. Derek Cianfrance, the poet of battered men and mourning households, directs after a nine-year hiatus. The movie swaps his customary dirge and dour for a minor-key charmer with some major chords snuck in.
A soulful and soft-eyed, Channing Tatum plays the gentleman robber. He is a thief who craves physical contact. He is lonely. The real robberies, more than 40 in total, were all carried out through the roofs of fast-food and fast-fashion franchises. All were warm, polite, and genial affairs. So, the Jeff here orders employees of a McDonald’s he is robbing to put on coats before he locks them into the cooler— even lending his own coat to a manager who had forgotten his. He is a criminal with manners and empathy— and also a divorced father who has been dispossessed, plus a veteran without purpose or allegiance.
The film does understand him. He is a romcom lead in a social drama. Cianfrance and his co-writer, Kirt Gunn, sketch Jeff’s character with economy and emotion. He robs to save and buy a house for his kids. He is both good and a clever moron. A lucky “Genius”. Jeff is a man-child who wants to rewrite his own childhood. So the plot has him break out of prison and settle into a Toys “R” Us. His life is now all Spider-Man sheets, candy dinners, baby monitors.—surveillance as sanctuary.
Then, there is Leigh (Kirsten Dunst). She is graceful and forgiving, a good soul who wholeheartedly believes that everyone deserves a second chance. Her character fits those basic characteristics: a churchgoing single mother of two daughters who works with a manager who refuses to give her weekends off.
Jeff, watching from the shadows of Toys R Us, decides to intervene. Jeff has adopted the alias John. The catch—Jeff still loves and longs for his family. Dunst and Tatum develop a love that is tender, funny, and filled with ache, strain, and guilt on Jeff’s side. It becomes even more heartbreaking because Dunst and Tatum do have a glowing on-screen chemistry.
To its credit, the film does not try to elevate the gentleman bandit concept. Instead, it strips it of all myth. There is no swagger or outlaw mystique. Cianfrance scrupulously avoids giving Jef any criminal romantic aura. He is just a man trying to do the decent thing in a world with no decent options.
The film’s title is perfect—Roofman- not “The Roofman” or “The Heist.” Just a nickname, half-joke, half-legend— a simple title that suggests ascent and capture. Jeff is always above, and yet, is always hiding. He is always looking down at a life that he wants but cannot have, reach, or obtain.
Roofman is a film where the loneliness, comedy and the love lands. It just pipes up and waits, expects the audience to notice this tale of wounded macho, working-class heartache and the flaws of love.
Grade: B+
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