| Worth seeing: | as a darkly comic, astonishing real-life story that keeps the viewer on the side of the resourceful, kind and caring criminal |
| Director: | Derek Cianfrance |
| Featuring: | Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Ben Mendelsohn, Emory Cohen, Gabriella Cila, Jimmy O Yang, Juno Temple, Katherine Scheimreif, Lakeith Stanfield, Lily Collias, Molly Price, Peter Dinklage, Tony Revolori |
| Length: | 126 minutes |
| Certificate: | 15 |
| Country: | US |
| Released: | 17th October 2025 |
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
US Army veteran Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum) is embarrassed that he can’t afford to buy his daughter a bike on her birthday and takes the advice of her former comrade Steve (LaKeith Stanfield) to use his great observational skills to make a bit of extra money on the side. Before long, he’s amassed a fortune, robbing McDonald’s branches – accessing them through the roof overnight – lying in wait for the staff to arrive in the morning – and charming them into opening the safe for him.
But it’s not long before the authorities catch the burglar who’s earned himself the moniker, the “Roofman,” and he’s soon jailed for 45 years.
Not long into his sentence, he uses his powers of observation to help him plan a daring escape, making it to Charlotte in North Carolina, where he slips into a branch of Toys “R” Us – and using his resourcefulness, manages to set up home in the spaces above ceilings and the gaps between walls. Sleeping during the day, he overrides the security system and pops out into the shop at night to help himself to sweets and – well – play with the toys.
Over the months that follow, he falls for a member of staff, Leigh (Kirsten Dunst), who he’s watched on the CCTV system he’s set up using baby monitors he’s taken from the shelves – and boldly starts sneaking out of the store and under an assumed identify, manages to strike up a relationship with her – becoming a surrogate father to her kids.
But how long can this new life last – and what will he do if he’s found out?
WHAT’S IT LIKE?
How often have you heard “If it happened in a film, you wouldn’t believe it!”? Well – here we go again – it’s another real-life story that seems so surreal and unbelievable, it’s astonishing that it really happened. And to pull the source material and the big screen adaptation together, the real-life Leigh turns up in a cameo as the arresting police officer.
Roofman is has more levity and is less profound than you might expect from Derek Cianfrance, who is known for films including Blue Valentine, The Place Beyond the Pines and The Light Between Oceans – but he’s not playing it for laughs; most of the humour comes from Channing Tatum’s lightness of touch, Peter Dinklage’s cantankerous toy store boss and the bizarre nature of the real-life events it portrays.
The story itself is tinged with melancholy, whether it’s Jeff’s own unhappy marriage, his feelings of failure as a parent, the betrayal of a friend, a good man at heart who makes bad decisions – and when he finally meets the right woman, his bad decisions jeopardise any hope of real happiness.
It’s one of those tough films – for an audience – where you’re rooting for someone who’s clearly a criminal – a man whose resourcefulness is a bold and brave as it is admirable and who – despite his shortcomings – is always good-natured, kind and caring, with a strong sense of justice – even mid robbery.
There are moments who you feel it simply must be straying from the truth – but even those truly outlandish moments are grounded in reality.