ROOFMAN

THREE STARS Jeffrey escapes prison and hides out in a toy shop. With a new identity, the charismatic thief makes friends with churchy Leigh and her family.

COMEDY DRAMA US English #ROOFMAN Starring Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst

Playing real-life “Roofman” Jeffrey Manchester, Channing Tatum is an ex-soldier and serial burglar who, convicted, escapes prison to hide for months in a Toys “R” Us store. Living among the dolls and bicycles, he dismantles alarms, rides his bike at night, and lives off M&Ms and baby food while trying not to get caught. ROOFMAN is a curious beast - part offbeat comedy, part morality tale and part studio drama from another era. Thanks largely to Tatum’s innate likability, it’s also mostly charming.

The true story setup is almost too bizarre to believe, and becomes more so when Manchester becomes involved in one of the store’s workers. Aware that the public quickly lose interest in the sensational, he plucks up courage to drop some (stolen) toys at a local church where he meets Leigh (Kirsten Dunst), a divorced mother whose kids and congregation all welcome him into their lives, everyone completely unaware he’s wanted for armed robbery. Unable to see his own family, he latches on to theirs and recasts himself as one of the good guys.

It’s an irresistible setup; part crime drama, part romance, part absurdist comedy with plenty of scope to explore the fascination of celebrity, celebrating the criminal - and have a laugh. And for a while, ROOFMAN is fun: a man creating order out of chaos. But as the story turns darker and Jeffrey’s lies catch up with his violence, the film retreats from making any real moral claim. Director Derek Cianfrance can’t quite decide which way to steer the story and his trademark gravitas tends to smother the light. He neither condemns nor redeems his protagonist, leaving us with a (mostly) likeable thief, a likeable movie, and not much else.

That said, there are still plenty of moments to enjoy. Tatum’s good-hearted outlaw has undeniable chemistry with Dunst, who brings emotional clarity to a thinly written role. Peter Dinklage and Ben Mendelsohn are good value and round out a strong cast who work hard to stop the story collapsing under the weight of its own ambivalence. Mostly.

There’s even a dash of poignancy when real-life figures from the case appear in cameos, adding texture to the myth. But in the end, ROOFMAN is a lot like Jeffrey’s diet, all sugar and colour with little in the way of nutritional value. For all its offbeat promise, Cianfrance never quite convinces us that he has something to say, or why it should matter.

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