Roofman: Derek Cianfrance turns a bizarre true-story of a criminal hiding out in Toys "R" Us into a touching drama
The real-life story of the ‘roofman robber’ who successfully hid out in a toy shop for six months could have just been played for laughs, but Channing Tatum’s charisma and an excellent performance from Kirsten Dunst make its moments of heartache cut deep.
The story is crazy but true. In the late 1990s, Jeffrey Manchester robbed dozens of McDonald’s stores across America, earning the sobriquet Roofman for his tactic of entering the stores by breaking a hole in the roof. Having received a 45-year sentence for his crimewave, Manchester broke out of jail and spent months hiding in a branch of Toys “R” Us while waiting for the manhunt to die down.
There are couple of ways a film adaptation of this story could go. It could be a broad comedy in the vein of Big (1988) about a man living every child’s dream – being locked in a toy store all night – or it could be the sad tale of a career criminal living in cramped isolation, cut off from his family and subsiding on M&Ms and baby food, while the net of justice closes in. In the hands of Roofman director Derek Cianfrance, we get a mixture of both approaches. The turn towards comedy is a surprising change of pace for Cianfrance, following the occasionally heavy-handed romantic dramas Blue Valentine (2010), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) and The Light Between Oceans (2016), but he directs with a disarming lightness of touch here.
An extremely charismatic Channing Tatum does some of the best work of his career as Jeff, an ex-military operative who is described as a genius-level observer and problem solver. It’s enormous fun watching him figure out how to establish control of Toys “R” Us, bypassing the security systems and using baby monitor cameras to spy on the store’s cranky boss (Peter Dinklage). When Tatum meets Toys “R” Us employee Leigh (Kirsten Dunst, outstanding), the mood of the film changes. As he grows closer to Leigh and her daughters under an assumed identity, Jeff sees the opportunity for a second chance at life, and to fill the void left by the family he lost when he was incarcerated.
What’s wonderful about Roofman is the time and space we get to see this relationship grow. When Leigh invites Jeff into her home and her church, we can see from the expression on Tatum’s face how this sense of community resonates within him, and how impossible the choice about his next move has become. There’s something of Jonathan Demme in the way Cianfrance crafts this material, with its delicate tonal balance, vivid sense of place and genuine interest in every character. Cianfrance may have intended Roofman as a lighter offering, but he’s made something so charming, sincere and empathic, the inevitable heartache at the end cuts even deeper.
► Roofman is in UK cinemas now.