Derek Cianfrance (BLUE VALENTINE) returns to our screens with ROOFMAN - a rather melancholy, occasionally funny, but ultimately rather whimsical and moving true crime story. The weird thing is that the dayglow poster and goofy plot set-up make you think you are walking into a gonzo crime caper. And yes, the film may have elements of that, but it has far more depth and emotional heft.
Channing Tatum (MAGIC MIKE) stars as the titular Roofman - a demobbed soldier with a talent for observation and charm to spare. Without the cash to spoil his wife and kids, he turns to armed robbery, knocking off 45 fast food restaurants. His kind heart and general goofiness get him caught, but his aforementioned observational smarts also allow him to plot an audacious prison escape. And all this is in the first forty-five minutes of the two-hour-plus film! The balance of the film sees Jeffrey in a kind of purgatory: out of prison but on the lam and unable to spend time with his actual family. So, he ends up hiding out in a Toys’R’Us for literally months, hacking the security systems. Even more audaciously, he ends up making friends at a local church, and romancing local single mother and employee Leigh (Kirsten Dunst). Jeffrey now has a new identity where he is the good guy, John, and everybody loves him - even Leigh’s emo teenage daughter. The problem is, he makes the same mistakes again and again: trying to buy people’s affections.
This is a film that floats along with mild good humour and a lot of warmth, thanks mostly to Channing Tatum’s innate charm and the fact that while he may be feckless he at least he owns his mistakes. It makes for an interesting contrast with JB Mooney, the lead character in Kelly Reichardt’s THE MASTERMIND. Where Jeffrey is a loveable rogue who takes accountability but just can’t help himself, Mooney is an entitled prick. They are both simultaneously brilliant and stupid. But the former actually cares for his kids, and indeed seems to be a rather warm-hearted individual more generally.
I thoroughly enjoyed this film, not least for its heavy 1990s nostalgia and a lovely pair of cameos from Peter Dinklage as the dickish store manager and Ben Mendelssohn as the parish priest. Kirsten Dunst brings so much heart and warmth and intelligence to everything she does, and Tatum is so charming, that it’s just a fun two hours. Not a rollicking comedy as the marketing campaign would have you believe, but perhaps more worth your time for all that.
ROOFMAN has a running time of 126 minutes. It played Toronto 2025. It was released in the USA last Friday.
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