Images courtesy of Paramount Pictures
ROOFMAN— 4 STARS
The tagline of Roofman from celebrated filmmaker Derek Cianfrance announces its presence straightaway under the title on the film poster, stating, “Based on actual events and terrible decisions.” We’ve seen the classic “based on…” label many times, but that second part about “terrible decisions” is what raises eyebrows, tilts a head, and turns a grin. Each of us has made our fair share of those to the point where we immediately wonder how bad could these upcoming decisions be in the movie?
That’s when Cianfrance and company say “Hold my beer,” and curiosity into the premise takes you a step further to Roofman. The film attempts to dramatize the story of Jeffery Manchester, a convicted felon and veteran of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, who earned the film title’s criminal nickname after drilling through roofs to rob over 40 fast-food restaurant locations in the late 1990s and early Aughts.
Wait. He did what? How? Oh, there’s more.
After being caught, convicted, and sentenced to 45 years in prison, Jeff would escape and go on the lam, hiding for several months in—get this—a fully-operating Toys ‘R Us store. Yes, you read that right: months—not days—and a Toys ‘R Us.
LESSON #1: A PREMISE SO WILD IT COULD ONLY BE TRUE— Exhale, close your eyes, hear the famous Toys ‘R Us jingle, and picture that scenario for a moment. If you think that sounds like something ripped from the head-shaking headlines of Florida Man, you’re only three states off from the Charlotte, North Carolina setting of both Roofman and a story so wild that it could only be true. I’ll say it again. Just wait. There’s more.
You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried, and even if you could, how many people would believe you? Better yet, how many folks would offer the classic exclamatory reaction of “They need to make a movie about that!” Well, your wish has been granted for a zany tale such as this by the unpredictable, unshy, and uncompromising Roofman, starring the newly middle-aged Channing Tatum in one of the most entertaining yarns in recent memory.
Unspooling this premise, Roofman introduces Jeff Manchester (Tatum), sharing voiceover narration describing his mentality and predicament while hammering through the exterior roof and underceiling of a McDonald’s before the morning crew arrives to open the restaurant. Jeff’s a smooth operator and a surprisingly kind soul, offering the sweatshirt off his masked back to the shivering shift manager (Tony Revolori of The Grand Budapest Hotel) before he stuffs him in a walk-in freezer to achieve his getaway. He’s learned the systems and developed his own, leading to, as aforementioned, over 40 successful heists and an evening news moniker.
LESSON #2: MASKING POOR DECISIONS— As it shows through the beginnings of Channing Tatum’s performance as a lovable loser, Jeff Manchester is a little too nice and a little too naive to justify his bad decisions, knucklehead character traits for crime reinforced in his direction by his fellow 82nd veteran Steve, played by LaKeith Stanfield (Judas and the Black Messiah). Jeff arrives at this low place from the inability to translate his Army experience into a steady full-time job to provide child support for his three children and divorced ex-wife (The First Purge’s Melonie Diaz). He means well, especially around his oldest daughter, as he tries spouting positivity like “If you can dream it, you can make it” and “Everybody did their best, and that’s what counts.” Sadly, all of this is a weak mask hiding unadmitted failure.
LESSON #3: KEEN POWERS OF OBSERVATION— Where Jeff Manchester is an acknowledged genius instead of an idiot in Roofman is through his keen senses of observation, born from years in uniform, built to be a trained instrument of patience that knows how to keep his brain occupied for long stretches of time. He’s a problem-solving MacGyver with his eyes and hands, engineering both a daring prison escape under a delivery truck and evading the security cameras to infiltrate a Charlotte Toys ‘R Us store to hide from a statewide manhunt. Once he learns the systems of a place, he bends them to his resourceful whims and exploits the loopholes to retrofit his own control and comforts. These escalating figuring-it-out scenes of creative manipulation, all happening in an ingeniously recreated 2000s-age Toys ‘R Us film set designed by Inbal Weinberg (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) and dressed by Kendal Anderson (Uncut Gems) and Romain Gateau’s props, give Roofman some impressive caper movie polish and zip in its first half.
When Jeff hears that Steve, a document forger who can get hims out of the country, has taken a private contract job in Iraq for six months, he hunkers down for the long haul in his toy swag digs. Now, Roofman could have stayed this fugitive course as an escalating crime thriller for another hour, and we would be enthralled with the merry chase. However, the true story of Jeff Manchester’s time evading capture features a sweet candy center in the middle of its hardshell treat.
Out of almost nowhere, Cianfrance shifts the entire inertia of Roofman into a romantic comedy when Jeff steps out to meet Kirsten Dunst’s Leigh Wainscott, one of several belittled Toys ‘R Us employees working for the asshole store manager Mitch (a perfectly-cast Peter Dinklage) that he’s been watching like his own personal daytime soap opera through planted baby monitor cameras. Leigh, a devout Christian and struggling mother of two daughters, ropes his alias of “John Zorn” into attending her parish, led by husband and wife pastor team of Ron and Eileen Smith (professional movie villain Ben Mendelsohn, taking a break from terrorizing others, and three-time Emmy winner Uzo Aduba). He sweeps her off her feet and is welcomed with new arms into an understanding community who have no idea he’s the “Roofman” from the news.
This is the stretch of Roofman where Derek Cianfrance (The Place Beyond the Pines, Blue Valentine, The Light Between Oceans) relaxes his usual inclination for dwelling on melancholic despondency and unleashes that endless supply of goofy and sexy charisma Channing Tatum possesses. That man, when necessary, can burst a charm thermometer faster than a sizzling habachi grill, and Dunst’s sooting vitality follows suit. Tilting towards realism, the former Magic Mike and 21 Jump Street star makes the most of this middle section of the movie, yet finds deft ways to channel his enchantment through a damaged veneer that increasingly regrets the web of deception he has created. These split tugs of adoration and desperation create one of the best—if not the very best—complete performances of the 45-year-old’s career. You can’t take your affinity away or your eyes off his alluring scamp.
To create this tragically captivating dramedy, Derek Cianfrance maintains both his signature shooting style of intimacy and steady reminders that we’re still falling for a liar and criminal. Cianfrance has long been a master of layered handheld close-ups, which demand his actors convey necessary emotions across their full face for all to see. In key moments of both bliss and creeping conscience, The Pod Generation cinematographer Andrij Parekh’s camera will slowly pierce through a foreground to find the eyes of a subject—in this case, the four light baby blues of Tatum and Dunst— having a moment and linger. The heft of the given scene will lay bare their inward emotions, betraying their put-upon facial expressions.
LESSON #4: PREPARING FOR HEARTBREAK— That effect on Cianfrance’s portending narrative path is enveloping and crushing. Alas, we know the long arm of the law and the hammer of heartbreak are not far behind Jeff’s advertised terrible decisions. We’re enamored with the bad guy and rooting for a glimmer of possible happiness, even if we know in our heart of hearts that it’s too good to be true. As Roofman arrives towards its climax and goodbyes become difficult, we swallow hard to prepare for the worst with the exposure of the dramatic irony we know is hidden from Leigh.
By definition, Roofman’s warm and romantic center should make the entire film offhandedly uneven (an overused term I avoid in my reviews). Yet, if anything, that buoyant levity changes everything and saves the entire thing from indifference. Like Tatum’s Jeff/John states, “Everybody forgets you eventually, except the people who really love you.” The bigger the love, the higher the fall. Roofman succeeds because of the empathetic adoration created by the main character. Without it, this is just a silly headline dalliance. With it, it flirts with unforgettable urban legend status.
LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#1344)
