How long can we maintain what seems like the perfect lie? And can it lead us to redemption, if we are willing to pay the price? Perhaps that is some of life’s most fleeting questions. The conversation could go in circles for hours, and Channing Tatum (Step Up, 21 Jump Street, Magic Mike, 22 Jump Street, Logan Lucky) feels like he runs in circles around this question here. Tatum delivers his best performance in years with Roofman, co-written and directed by executive producer Derek Cianfrance. At the helm of anyone else, this story would have probably come off as too goofy. However, Cianfrance’s innate ability to tell these intimately human stories proves otherwise.
Roofman is based on one of the most baffling true stories in existence, and almost doesn’t make sense. For the sake of this film, Jeffrey Manchester (Tatum) apparently robbed forty-five McDonald’s over the course of two years from the late 1990s into the early 2000s. The end credits play multiple news reels of Manchester’s actual crimes, which also involved Burger Kings and Blockbusters (the long-gone video rental store). Appearing like the kindest criminal in existence, he often hurled employees into the freezer and took whatever money that would have just gone to a deposit at the local bank. Cutting holes in the roofs of these businesses, he earned the titular nickname.
What is the True Cost of Living?
Manchester, a former Army Ranger, like most normal folks, suffered at times to provide for his family. He hatched this baffling idea through his need to provide, and it seemed to work, until the moment that it didn’t. We all strive for our own version of the good life. Some people are willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen, without almost any awareness of the consequences they could pay. As one officer in the film puts it, Manchester seems like someone “with a genius-level intellect, but is also one of the biggest idiots he’s ever seen.” That’s not to put down the titular antihero. Despite his crimes, Roofman makes the audience root for Manchester in some fashion.
Through some wild antics, such as Manchester’s, he ends up in prison with a forty-five-year sentence. Eventually, through his fantastic observation skills, he breaks out of prison. From there, he decides to hang out inside a Toys “R” Us store in Charlotte, North Carolina. Without any break in levity, he begins to observe the comings and goings of the employees, and seems to be living any 90s kid’s fever dream. However, he unwittingly begins to unravel his own getaway for what we all crave: that damn innate need for human connection. With his own family having essentially forgotten about him in some way, he meets Leigh Wainscott (Kirsten Dunst), an employee of his own home away from home. Comedically enough, he begins fudging her schedule and slyly works his way into her life, where his plan begins to crack.
Suffer the Consequences, or Run?
Everything we do in life has its own ramifications, for better or worse. To cite Gladiator, does everything we do in life echo in eternity? Probably so. Karma can be the ultimate gotcha. Eventually, even Manchester realizes this before it’s too late. Even when it is, it’s almost as if he accepted it regardless. Through conversations with his church’s pastor, Ron (Ben Mendelsohn), and his fellow Army veteran Steve (LaKeith Stanfield), he seems to truly realize the true aftermath of his life up to that point. In Roofman’s final moments, it’s almost like he is finished running and knows exactly what’s coming.
After robbing the store he was living in to fund his final move, Wainscott continues to call him, and the final grain of sand moves down the hourglass. At this moment, Manchester almost replays everything up to this point. Tatum’s ability to move from the lighter to heavier moments within the film’s screenplay is truly one of the best moments of his career. Several scenes before his final getaway, he begins to realize that he will again have to be alone in order not to suffer his cruelly incoming meeting with fate. It’s as if he’s fast-forwarded to the beach he keeps narrating about, and begins to deal with the grief in that moment, looking at someone he truly loves and cares about. Sometimes, good people make bad choices. Or is that capitalism?
Technical Elements
Cianfrance and executive producer Kirt Gunn’s screenplay has many tonal shifts throughout Roofman. Tatum plays them all near perfectly. Ironically, you almost feel like Manchester was entirely unaware of what could happen and therefore root for him. Music composer Christopher Bear’s (Past Lives, Dave Season 3, The Passenger, Adults) score adds to the subtlety of the film. The swap between the musical cues and score is an added bonus to the heartbreak of the film’s atmosphere. DP Andrij Parekh’s (Succession Season 1, Watchmen, Scenes from a Marriage) photography and almost natural color grading within Roofman’s wideshots comprise more of this suffering atmosphere. Cianfrance and Parekh move the camera only when necessary, and the tracking shots are always enchanting to witness.
Final Thoughts on Roofman
Roofman seeks to move its audience in the most subtle way. The film also serves as a slight commentary on capitalism. The fact that a military veteran had to go to these outlandishly extreme lengths to provide is its own problem as well. While he obviously could have made different choices, aren’t we all faced with moments like this? Whether to provide for a family or even make a better life for ourselves? The film’s equal moments of the dramatic and the comedic are welcoming, while Tatum and Dunst deliver some of the year’s best performances.
Ultimately, our choices can serve to make us into who we are or teach us a harsh lesson in reality. The grief of our choices may come in waves, and every action we take seeks to make us better or worse. Sometimes, it’s the roll of the dice, or we have to put our hands on the wheel and say, “Let’s go.” The ceiling is always there to break through.
Derek Cianfrance and Kirt Gunn’s Roofman is now playing in theatres!
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