Writers: Derek Cianfrance and Kirt Gunn
Director: Derek Cianfrance
The lone criminal fighting against the system is a filmmaker favourite and the latest Robin Hood figure to earn his own biopic is Jeffrey Manchester, aka “Roofman,” who absconded from a 45-year prison term to hide out for 6 months in a Toys ‘R’ Us store while presenting himself to locals as a church-going intelligence operative who falls in love with a woman and becomes part of her family. And it is a great story which writers Derek Cianfrance and Kirt Gunn turn into an enjoyable if sometimes sentimental film with a great central performance from Channing Tatum. But in lionising Manchester, once again these kinds of stories imply his crimes were victimless.
In the early 2000s, separated from his wife, Jeff throws a disappointing birthday party for his daughter. Embarrassed by his lack of money, a year later Jeff is in a big house and affords an expensive do from the proceeds of armed robberies of fast-food restaurants which he enters via the roof. Caught and sentenced to a hefty term, Jeff escapes and ends up hiding in a toy store where he builds a nest and takes control of the security cameras, only he didn’t imagine he’d fall in love with one of the employees.
Although there is nothing particularly new in Cianfrance and Gunn’s film, its quirky setting and enjoyable gentleman criminal trope gives Roofman a very human face that makes Jeff more than his crimes and, to an extent, builds a credible picture of how he got to this point after serving in Afghanistan and finding little work when he returned. And Tatum’s performance is very engaging, narrating the story in memory style that is just as open about his mistakes and regrets as it is the fun parts of the movie, including his ingenious prison break idea and Jeff’s ability to read people and systems well enough to exploit them.
The activities set in the Toys ‘R’ Us store are very well staged, capturing both the potential joyousness of the place and Jeff’s wacky behaviour as well as the corporate soullessness behind the scenes with unhappy low paid staff treated badly by the management. How Jeff becomes embroiled with them is also entertaining, giving the story a subversive appeal amidst some subplots about bullying and unreasonable hours that Jeff also intervenes on, adding to the impression the film wants to create of a good guy in a bit of a jokey system.
Yet Roofman sorts Jeff’s “victims” into two categories, his original family and the life he adopts with slightly too good to be true single mum Leigh (Kirsten Dunst not showing her range) who the film is misty-eyed about and has the voiceover version of Jeff feel sorrow for. But Cianfrance and Gunn have absolutely nothing to say about the people he terrorised at gunpoint or whose businesses – and livelihoods – he destroyed. His nice manners won’t stop the staff of Toys ‘R’ Us from remembering a loaded weapon pointed at them on Christmas Eve or the small dentists’ office that burned down just to conceal his dental records from presumably destroying the lives of everyone who worked there. None of that is acknowledged in the film at all, just all part of the caper.
‘This is a true story’ Roofman declares at the start so while it is fun and highly enjoyable with a great protagonist in Jeff, this story remains true for all the people that Cianfrance and Gunn’s film only casts in secondary roles so making Jeff the loveable victim doesn’t quite ring true.
Roofman is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2025 from 8-19 October.
