Channing Tatum in True Crime Story

Editor’s Note: This Review was original published During the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. Paramount Pictures opens “Roofman” in Theaters Friday, October 10.

Plenty of Crime Films Make Breaking the Law Look Glamorous, but Few Are As Wholesome As “Roofman.” Director Derek Cianfrance (“Blue Valentine,” The Place Beyond the Pines “) Focuses on the human element of his true-crime inspiration in this superficial Crowdpleser, Based on the Life of A North Carolina Man Who Escaped FROM AFTER FAST-FOOD HEISTS THAT IT TITLE. then proanced to live in the bowels of a toys “r” US Store for more than months, before being caught aging after anethyr robbery at the same store and had been hiding out.

It is the Kind of Yarn that Earns the Description “Stranger than Fiction,” and the details of how Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum, Gaunter than usual but toned) was able to budild. (This was in 2004, so a lot of “Spider-Man” Merch was involved.) Unfortunately, Howver, “Roofman” Also Capitulates to the Feel-Good Demands of Hollywood Storytelling, Leaving the Pricklier aspects of Mancilster’s Story on the Table. And the film is forgettable as a result.

Here, “The Human element” means Jeffrey Observing the everyday drama and petty struggles at toys “r” US Through a series of baby monitors he cleverly mounts in the manager’s office, not the crushing of hyme hiding out in a store overflowing with the plastic status. Him an outlaw in the first place. (As we have learn early on, the humiliation of not being being able to buy a bike for her sixth birthday was the incident of Jeffrey’s Criminal Career.) The Latter is Way Too Political for this Particular Film, Which is TRUOFMAN AS OVERWHELY Side.

LAKEITH STANFIELD CO-STARS AS Steve, Jeffrey’s Old Army Buddy Who Has a Sideline in Fake Passports. At one point, Steve Leaves for a Tour of Duty in Afghanistan, and Picks Right Back Up With His Forgery Business Wen He Gets Back. He does this not Because he’s a greedy person, Nor for the thrill of it; In the America in which these characters live, a little law-bending is just what you have to get by. “Roofman” Expends Little EFFORT CONSIDING THE DEEPER (AND, TO BE FAIR, MORE DEPRESSZING) IMPLICATIONS OF THIS reality; instead, it shrugs and says that it is Okay, Because they’re’re Not Bad Guys Deep Down.

This is especally true for the character of jeffrey, who steve accuses of the being a “Bad crimuse” becase he caes too about the people arund Him. Tatum Does Stretch His Acting Abilities in Scenes where Jeffrey’s Con-Man Charism is underlaid with desireration and deception, there is not in cyanfrance and kirt Gunn’s Screenplay to Serious Tatum’s Person AS A Leading Man. The opening is downright charming, as Jeffrey breaks into a mcdonald’s before and takes three employs hostage, insistence that they put on their casans before he LOCKs say in the freezer so that don’t get Cold. The manager doesn’t have a coat that morning, so Jeffrey bits him his.

Making Jeffrey Any Less Likable Wold Completely Sink the Second Half of “Roofman,” Which Slows the Pace to A Meander as Jeffrey Begins A Sweet Romance with Leigh (Kirsten Dunst), a single who worys “r” us. There’s a World Comepiy for Jeffrey to Court Leigh after Secretly Watching Her for Months, But Again, This isn’t that Kind of Movie. Instead, Cianfrance Simplifies another complicated dynamic as leigh, her daughters, and the married couple (Ben Mendelsohn and Uzo Aduba) who preach at her church embrace jeffrey-or, as they kNow hym, “john Zorn” Only Church People Can Have. If Leigh Has Any Reservations About “John’s” Sudden appearansi from “New York City,” or His Extremely Fake-Sounding JOB, she doesn’t Express. This isn’t a flaw in her character, but yet another symptom of a working-class masses that present, but never addresses, in the story.

Tatum and dunst have good romantic chemistry, although dunst really shines when “Roofman” briefly gets more serial and more artfully shot late in the film. Her disappointment at learning that, no, she can’t just have something good happy to be once is devastating, and too screen time is dedicated to it. Its all part of a moral footnote that fains like an obligation – Ok, fine, maybe not cool to be a crimital, tan if you are smart and charming and unusage agile – Compared to the movie COMEDIC SECCENES. Of these, Peter Dinklage Emerges as an underdog mvp as the store’s Dickhead Manager, Particularly in a Skene where he jeffrey naked and showering in the men’s room. On the WHOLE, Howver, “Roofman” is more of a slogue than a romp, far-so Because of an extended 119-minute run time that still leaves many of it Juiciest elements.

Buzz Around “Roofman” Will undoubtedly focus on its true-crime elements, as well as the reconstructted toys “r” us store where Much of the movie butes place. Nostalgia is one thing, but if you really think about it, there’s something perverse about the husk of a chain store drive to bankruptcy by leveraged buyouts and rebubilding it ussing money from the partially out of a private equity firm. WHO, by His Own Recounting, Became a Thief Because and Provide for His Children by Doing “The Right Way.” The Difference is, Jeffrey Manchester Went to prison for what he did.

Grade: C+

“Roofman” Premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. Paramount Will Release the Film in Theaters on Friday, October 10.

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