ROOFMAN - Mark Reviews Movies

Roofman, Paramount Pictures / Miramax

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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 9, 2025

Like any decent person, Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum) just wants the best for his family, and for whatever reason, he doesn't believe himself capable of providing that to them. That's why he starts robbing fast food restaurants. Roofman sees this story, based on a true one, as a study of contradictions. Yes, Jeffrey seems decent to his core and pure in his motivations, but he is also selfish and a hypocrite. It's easy enough to like the guy at his best, especially as played by a charming and vulnerable Tatum, but it's also easy to see what he apparently cannot perceive about himself.

The screenplay by director Derek Cianfrance and Kirt Gunn depends on us liking Jeffrey to some extent, even though he robs innocent people at gunpoint, locks them up against their will, and makes imprudent choices after essentially getting away with his crimes. As his friend and fellow military veteran Steve (LaKeith Stanfield) puts it, Jeffrey is "the smartest dumb" guy he has ever known.

That makes him somewhat sympathetic, too, because most people, if pushed into or deciding upon committing some crime, probably would fail in some minor or spectacular way. Sometimes, it's tough to believe in the basic decency of most people, but even then, it's almost a guarantee that most ordinary folks don't really have a clue how they'd act under the kind of pressure into which Jeffrey keeps putting himself over and over again.

Initially, Jeffrey does simply want to provide for his family, because he's separated from his wife (played by Melonie Diaz) and only gets to see his young daughter and infant twin sons every so often. When the movie starts, he's throwing a birthday party for his daughter (played by Alissa Marie Pearson), who's hoping for a bicycle. Jeffrey can't afford one, and the look of politely hidden disappointment when the girl opens a hand-me-down gift from her father's own childhood is impossible to miss.

That's why he starts robbing those chain restaurants, breaking in through the roof at night, waiting for the morning shift to arrive, and holding the employees in the freezer while he steals whatever cash he can find. After about 50 thefts over a year, Jeffrey has enough money to give his family the life he thinks they deserve, but obviously, spending it so freely means the cops show up. A judge decides to throw the book at him, because there's only enough proof for one of the robberies. He gets 45 years in prison for kidnapping the three workers, who keep pointing out how well he treated them under the circumstances—circumstances Jeffrey created, of course.

The real story, though, begins after Jeffrey escapes from a North Carolina prison, making himself helpful to everyone so that nobody pays much attention to him, and finds himself back in Charlotte. His family has moved on by then, so his escape, hoping to find a way out of the country with the hope that they're join or at least visit him at him point, is either a delusion or, perhaps, a sign that most of this is about him.

To be sure, the film has fun with Jeffrey's escape and behavior as a fugitive, because the real story is such a strange one, but that doesn't mean it simply accepts the character and his assertions about why he does what he does at face value. It's a bit more complex than that, although the central gimmick is quite amusing.

Essentially, Jeffrey finds himself holed up in a toy store, where he hides above the ceiling, gradually makes his way through the store as he determines what the security cameras can see and how to stop them from recording, and eventually makes a home in the hollow space behind a tall bike display. During the day, he occupies himself by watching the employees on a series of baby monitors he sets up, and at night, he roams the store, plays with things, and swipes whatever food—usually candy—he can find. After the manhunt subsides a bit, Jeffrey also heads out into the city—a routine that becomes more important to him after he brings some (stolen) toys to a local church, where store employee Leigh (Kirsten Dunst) is running a donation drive.

Their relationship, which starts from too many lies to list, becomes the heart of the narrative. As sweet as it is to watch Jeffrey form bonds with Leigh and her two daughters (played by Lily Collias and Kennedy Moyer), Cianfrance maintains an intriguing balance of tension here.

It's not just in knowing that Jeffrey's excursions into the world and connections to these assorted people put him jeopardy of being caught. It's also—and, arguably, mainly—in knowing and dreading that his deception will inevitably result in a fallout that extends beyond his temporary freedom. In trying to gain back some feeling of family from these unaware bystanders, Jeffrey is only setting up all of them to be hurt in the end.

It would be simple but erroneous to say that Roofman sees its main character as a wholly sympathetic figure. The film understands him and, up until the final lines of its text coda, genuinely wonders if the man is driven by his desire to help others or by some self-centered belief that he deserves more than he has gotten from life. Tatum's performance, which is abundantly charismatic, makes that an even tougher but tantalizing question to ponder, because we also have to wonder if the guy himself is aware of why he wants what he wants.

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