Roofman (2025) Review — Channing Tatum Steals the Show in Derek Cianfrance’s Strangely Sweet True-Crime Tale

Roofman

Directed by: Derek Cianfrance

Written by: Derek Cianfrance, Kirt Gunn

Starring: Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Peter Dinklage, LaKeith Stanfield

Release Date: October 10, 2025

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5

Channing Tatum stars in Roofman, Derek Cianfrance’s tender, funny, and surprisingly human true-crime story about Jeffrey Manchester — a real-life “nice guy” bandit who hid inside a Toys R’ Us.

A True Story Too Good to Be True

The real-life story of Jeffrey Manchester is the kind of tale filmmakers dream about — so unbelievable it must be true. A desperate man trying to hold his family together turns his keen powers of observation into a series of good-natured robberies. Later, after escaping prison, he hides for months inside a Toys R’ Us, even finding time for romance and small acts of kindness along the way.

It sounds like a Hollywood invention, but Manchester’s story is well-documented — through witness statements, police records, and news interviews. He was, by all accounts, a polite, funny, and even sweet man, despite robbing McDonald’s, Hardee’s, and Arby’s across North Carolina. His is a story made for the movies — but what kind of movie, exactly? That’s the central challenge of Roofman, a film that’s quite good yet tonally uncertain.

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Channing Tatum’s Charm Brings Jeffrey Manchester to Life

As Jeffrey Manchester, Channing Tatum delivers one of his most endearing performances. This version of Manchester is an Iraq War veteran struggling to provide for his daughter. After a disastrous birthday gift (an old erector set from his childhood), Jeffrey decides to use his ingenuity in a more daring way — cutting into fast-food restaurant roofs, hiding in the ceiling, and calmly robbing the morning crew at gunpoint.

He repeats this routine more than 40 times over a year, transforming his family’s financial fortunes before inevitably getting caught. Once in prison, Jeffrey’s model behavior sets up his next act: a carefully planned escape. When his friend and partner (LaKeith Stanfield) is redeployed overseas, Jeffrey takes refuge in an abandoned section of a Toys R’ Us — setting the stage for his unlikely friendship and romance with store employee Leigh Wainscott (Kirsten Dunst).

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Kirsten Dunst and Peter Dinklage Add Layers to the Absurd

Dunst’s Leigh is weary but kind, the kind of character who grounds the movie’s stranger-than-fiction premise. Her chemistry with Tatum gives Roofman a surprising sweetness. Peter Dinklage, as the uptight store manager Mitch, injects welcome tension and dry humor, while Stanfield lends emotional weight to a small but memorable role.

Cianfrance has always been a director drawn to the intersection of empathy and tragedy (Blue Valentine, The Place Beyond the Pines). Here, he finds an uneasy balance between heartfelt absurdity and melancholy realism. The moments of comedy — like Tatum dancing with a pink unicorn floatie — are delightful but occasionally clash with the film’s darker undercurrents.

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A Tonal Balancing Act That Mostly Works

The film’s second half turns more serious as Jeffrey’s crimes escalate. Cianfrance wants to honor the whole story — the joy and the moral cost — but this ambition sometimes leads to tonal whiplash. The transition from whimsical fugitive antics to the sobering reality of Jeffrey’s choices feels abrupt.

Still, Roofman remains deeply affecting. In its best moments, it plays like a spiritual cousin to Catch Me If You Can or American Animals — a true-crime fable about charm, loneliness, and the dream of being good, even while doing wrong.

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Final Thoughts: A Compassionate Crime Story

By the time the film closes with interviews from the real Leigh Wainscott, Roofman reveals itself as a story not about crime, but about longing — for redemption, for love, for human connection. It’s an imperfect film, but a heartfelt one, lifted by Channing Tatum’s best performance in years and Derek Cianfrance’s signature empathy for broken men trying to do right in the wrong ways.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5 — A funny, tender, and flawed true-crime gem with a big heart.

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