Joining the genre of ‘true stories stranger than fiction’ is ‘Roofman’. It’s the story of Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum) a former soldier and now father of three and trying to assimilate back into civilian wife with little success best illustrated at his daughter’s birthday party. The excitement in her eyes as he hands over a present that’s once she unwraps it is about as welcome as a fart in a space suit. It’s not the first time he’s let his family down and meaningful work eludes him and those two characteristics alone would seem to suggest he’s Meghan Markle’s twin.
But it’s his ex army friend Steve (Lakeith Stanfield) now running a side line in dodgy passports that points out Jeffrey’s talent for observation which leads to him noticing McDonald’s restaurants weak point is their roof which he easily breaks through into the restaurant and holds up the staff. So easy is it that he does it to 45 of their outlets but what makes him so memorable to all the staff is his politeness and courtesy to them at all times.
Inevitably he gets caught and banged up for 45 years and understandably his exasperated (and underwritten) wife divorces him. But it’s his observational skills that spots a way out of the prison and his escape plan works. But it’s his roofman skills come to the fore when he breaks into a Toys R Us store and eventually sets up home behind a display on the shop floor lying in bed surviving on a diet of M&M’s – a lifestyle choice that suggests he missed his vocation as a lifestyle guru for Gemma Collins.
It’s from here that he watches the staff in the manager’s office a truly appalling amalgam of every awful manager ever known as played by an always enjoyable Peter Dinklage revelling in the role. But it employee Leigh (Kirsten Dunst) that catches his eye. A single mum he makes his way into her life via her church and a romance soon blossoms with her two children gradually coming to accept him as their stepdad. But it’s inevitable that the whole farrago and the web of lies and deception he weaves will ultimately be his undoing and a local sheriff (a determined Molly Price) who is always on the lookout for him convinced that he cannot have gone far and must be hiding in plain sight.
Co-written and directed by Derek Cianfrance this is quite a different film from ‘The Place beyond the Pines’ (2012) that bought him to attention. He’s uses a lot of big close ups throughout film to no obvious beneficial effect but perhaps the only issue with the script here is that there’s no real explanation into just why Jeffrey Manchester made the sudden move from loving father to career criminal almost overnight.
Tatum is a terrific light comedy actor as demonstrated in ‘Fly me to the moon’, ‘The Lost City’ and several others and he is a hugely likeable screen presence ideally cast as the courteous criminal – it’s a characteristic that’s emphasized in the end credits when the real life victims describe in admirable terms. Dunst too is very likeable and easy to identify with as to just why she would fall for such a guy and it’s the latest film after Civil War, Melancholia and obviously the original Spiderman trilogy the shows what a versatile actress she is.
Though we’ve had similar though fictional tales such as the Flowers in the Attic. Hider in the House, Crawlspace plus other similar stories, Roofman is a slick by the book film but it is entertaining with an engaging couple at its core.
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Here’s the Roofman trailer….
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