Director Derek Cianfrance is responsible for one of my favorite romance films of all time, 2010’s Blue Valentine. Unfortunately, nothing he’s made since then has been on the same level in my opinion, but he’s remained a filmmaker to watch. I was concerned when I saw the trailers, as the film looked more comedic and more slapsticky than I would have liked. But Roofman, based on the true story of fugitive Jeffrey Manchester, had a solid reception out of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, so I remained optimistic about this movie. And after having seen Roofman, I think it’s clear Cianfrance has already made his best film, yet there is still a lot to enjoy here.

Roofman follows the life of Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum), an army veteran who turns to a life of crime to provide for his family. In the beginning, we hear about how he robbed over 40 McDonald’s locations, before being caught and being sent to prison. After he stages an escape, he finds a way to hide out for months in a Toys “R” Us store, without the store’s manager Mitch (Peter Dinklage) or anyone else noticing. While in hiding, he becomes attached to Leigh (Kirsten Dunst), one of the employees, and slowly begins to infiltrate himself into her life and her family’s lives. When a romance between these two begins to build, Jeff is faced with some tough decisions.

Roofman takes a ‘you’ll never believe this really happened!’ true crime narrative and adds a lot of unexpected heart and empathy. I’m not surprised Cianfrance’s goal seemed to be to dig into why this man committed all these crimes, rather than how. Jeff is portrayed as extremely sympathetic, almost as if he had no choice but to get himself into these situations, all the while the audience is aware he’s consciously and maybe even purposefully doing the wrong thing at every turn. To take a protagonist like this and give him that level of vulnerability and nuance, is proof we’ve got an emotionally adept filmmaker at the helm. Roofman looked like it would fall into familiar crime-comedy traps and cliches, but the writing of these characters stops that from happening.

And the film wouldn’t work at all if the film’s central performance wasn’t doing all it needed to do. And it’s been a very long time since Channing Tatum has been this good or has been given this kind of chance to dig into a character. There are plenty of ways this character could have been emotionally underdeveloped, but there’s so much humanity and nuance to the work Tatum is doing, and that elevates this entire film. His warm, believable chemistry with Kirsten Dunst, who also has not recently been given the chance to give this much to a character in some time. Their chemistry feels lived in and true, and the biggest reason why this story does not fall flat is due to the strong character detail these two actors are bringing to it.

We also have a terrific supporting cast here, unfortunately most of these people are underused. Peter Dinklage stars as the crabby manager of the Toys “R” Us store that Jeff infiltrates, Ben Mendelsohn stars as the pastor of Leigh’s church, and Uzo Aduba stars as his wife Eileen. We also have Lakeith Stanfield as Jeff’s old friend from the army who he leans on for help in difficult situations, and Juno Temple stars as his girlfriend. Most of these actors seem to be working overtime to make the most of what they’re given to work with, and that’s a shame. However, these are all actors I enjoy seeing, and they’re all adding something to the success of this film. 

Like I was starting to say earlier, the trailers for Roofman might be setting the viewer up for a movie they’re not going to get. From the advertising campaign, you’d expect this to be a wacky comedy with lots of crazy situations and hijinks, and it’s really not that at all. This is an understated and dramatic character study about someone who is convinced he’s doing the right thing to help his family, but later has to confront some uncomfortable truths about how opportunistic and self-centered his actions really are. And there’s a lot of ground to cover emotionally in that kind of a setup, and Cianfrance and his co-screenwriter Kirt Gunn find more interesting ways into that than I was expecting. Cinematographer Andrij Parekh, who also worked with Cianfrance on Blue Valentine, shot this and the film has a gauzy, melancholic look to it, and it sets the right tone early on.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by Roofman. I don’t think this film will be a serious awards season contender, but it’s definitely a better film than it would appear at the outset. Derek Cianfrance clearly has a lot of empathy for this character and wants to discover why he’s made the choices he has. And to get the viewer to give a damn about this person who is leaning into every bad decision possible, is no small feat. Roofman takes what appears to be a true crime screwball comedy and turns it into an earnest and moving character study. And despite being set in the early 2000s, the theme of economic anxiety is still an angle everyone can strongly relate to, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up resonating with audiences.