“This is a true story” often precludes a film where it becomes clear as the runtime marches on that very little of this movie actually happened in real life. Roofman is a rare case in which reality can be as strange as fiction.
A prison break, a crime caper, and a romantic drama all in one; the latest film from Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine) is a disarming, compelling throwback centered around the fascinating story of Jeffrey Manchester, a thief who singlehandedly robbed as many as 60 McDonald’s locations before being caught and imprisoned, escaping under a delivery truck, and hiding out in a Toys “R” Us store for six months.
Jeffrey is portrayed by Channing Tatum, a perfect match of script and movie star that plays to his unusual strengths as both a conventional, charming leading man and a lovable goofball, in this film which mostly focuses on his time living in the toy store and the romance he struck up while on the run.
Tatum’s star persona has not been so well utilized since Steven Soderbergh’s Nascar heist movie, Logan Lucky, in 2017. Kirsten Dunst plays a Toys “R” Us employee named Leigh who develops a relationship with Jeffrey after he begins living something of a double life in the local community, operating under a fake name and spending more time out of the toy store, including at Leigh’s church.
Tatum makes Jeffrey a guy who is easy to root for, a criminal who takes a decidedly non-violent approach and does what he does to support the people he loves, even when he can never make the right decision too many times in a row.
Roofman is brought to life by Tatum and the rest of the cast, all delivering naturalistic performances as small-town, good hearted people who don’t get the Hollywood treatment too often. Despite the stature of some of these performers, whether it be Dunst, LaKeith Stanfield, Peter Dinklage, or Ben Mendelsohn showing up for a few minutes as a hip, singing pastor in a Hawaiian shirt, everyone feels effectually like a real person.
Roofman underlines that in a movie culture increasingly dominated by IP and massively scaled stories, you can always rely on a film with just two components: a good story that audiences have not seen on screen, and a bunch of great actors they recognize showing up to do what they do best. Tatum and Dunst have palpable romantic chemistry which drives much of the film’s middle portion, hitting harder as we drive toward the inevitable conclusion of Jeffrey’s streak of criminal behavior.
Cianfrance, who is prone to making gut-wrenching, emotionally devastating stories about familial breakdown, finds the silver linings in every aspect of Roofman as a story, but it still builds to a tearjerking finale, despite the fun you have on the ride there. The blend of tones— being a crime caper, a comedy, and a romance all at once— is handled with ease, making Roofman an exceptionally easy recommendation for just about anybody.
As a true-crime narrative, Roofman takes a thematic approach that puts humanity ahead of the tabloid quality of crime reporting that makes a story like Jeffrey Manchester’s so fascinating to begin with. In a pivotal scene that underlines why this story was worth telling, after Jeffrey is found naked and chased through the store by the Toys “R” Us manager, Leigh rebukes a fellow church member for recounting the story in a teasing, comedic manner. Jeffrey, who was not identified, sits at this church dinner as Leigh unknowingly defends him, expressing that anyone who was found in that position must be desperate, vulnerable, and in need of help.
This scene turns the ire of Leigh back on the audience in a way, as the crowd just laughed through this nude chase scene before swiftly being reminded that this story is about a real person whose life was fundamentally broken by the choices he made, that it is sad more than anything.
We laugh at crazy headlines about Florida Man doing God knows what, but every one of those stories is about a real person whose dignity is being stripped away on a large stage, a life turned into a joke over decisions they either regret or simply cannot stop themselves from making for one reason or another. Roofman ensures that Jeffrey’s life is not merely a punchline. There are plenty of funny moments, but Cianfrance does not undercut the devastating reality of how this man’s choices effected those around him while ruining his own life. In this light, the film is smartly able to maintain a great deal of compassion for its main character while ensuring that the consequences of his actions are never diminished.
Jeffrey hurt people, he lied to people, he grew too close to people that he knew would eventually be caught in a landslide when he was backed into a corner, but he just can’t help himself.
The end credits further underline all of this with real news footage and brief interviews from Jeffrey’s robbery victims, the pastor, and even Leigh, who did not actually work at the Toys “R” Us, this was merely an effort to streamline the narrative. It is one of a few dramatic liberties taken, including the absence of a connected, abandoned Circuit City store where Jeffrey built a tunnel to a second hideaway.
The few things that don’t align with the real story are merely altered to make for a simpler, more concise story.
Jeffrey’s life is an incredible one that makes for a pretty great movie. It rings truer every year given the current movie landscape, but this is the exact kind of film we used to get a dozen of every year, not a masterpiece but a straight-down-the-middle hit that just about anybody could enjoy, packed with great performances and resonant at all times in its storytelling. Roofman should not fly under your radar.
7 out of 10
This article appears in Oct. 1-31, 2025.