“Roofman” Stumbles in Second Half

Roofman (Derek Cianfrance, 2025) 2½ out of 5 stars

The first half of Roofman, a new film (based on a true story) from director Derek Cianfrance (The Light Between the Oceans), is a terrific ride. Featuring comic hijinks amid high-risk situations, it mixes humor and danger in highly engaging fashion. Unfortunately, the second half is distinctly less controlled and definitely more unpleasant.

Channing Tatum (Fly Me to the Moon) plays Jeffrey Manchester, an army veteran and prolific thief from Charlotte, North Carolina, whose modus operandi—that which gave him his nickname and lends the movie its title—was to break into fast-food restaurants through their roofs and hold up the staff at gunpoint, all the while expressing vocal regret and apologizing to everyone for his behavior. After thus earning enough money to afford a nice house and offer his wife and three kids (a daughter and younger twin boys) plenty of gifts, he finally gets caught, landing in prison for 45 years. Crime, it seems, does not pay.

But a dumb lunk though he may be, Jeff is also very smart and a keen observer of the world around him, as his buddy (and fellow veteran), Steve (LaKeith Stanfield, The Book of Clarence) points out before the police arrive. And so it isn’t long before he figures out a way to escape the penitentiary. The cops aren’t that far behind, however, forcing Jeff to hide out in the local Toys”R”Us. When Steve—who dabbles in fake IDs on the side—proves unavailable for the next six months because of redeployment, Jeff decides to camp out in the store and wait it out.

This is where the movie shines, Cianfrance ably rendering Jeff’s clandestine life with deft cinematic charm, Tatum’s own natural charisma additionally bolstering what is already an intriguing premise. As Jeff sets up spy cameras throughout the venue to keep tabs on his surroundings, we also meet other strong cast members, among them Peter Dinklage (The Toxic Avenger) and Kirsten Dunst (Civil War), as branch manager Mitch and employee Leigh. Watching and listening in on the lives around him, Jeff eventually can’t keep to himself. Again, smart but dumb.

As is the movie. Or perhaps it’s just that Cianfrance develops a problem with tone once Jeff decides to pursue a relationship with Leigh. A single mother with two daughters, she’s wary of getting close to a man she doesn’t know all that well, but falls for Jeff anyway. He’s bereft at the loss of contact with his own children and so leans into being a surrogate parent. On the one hand it’s sweet. But only at first glance.

When analyzed more closely, his attentions are a form of unforgivable abuse, since things can only end one way, which makes the attempts at treating them in an occasionally jaunty way especially jarring. From there, it gets more disquieting towards the end. And so goes Roofman, losing its way as does Jeff.

Christopher Llewellyn Reed

Chris Reed is the editor of Film Festival Today. A member of both the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, Chris is, in addition, lead film critic at Hammer to Nail and the author of Film Editing: Theory and Practice.