• Director: Derek Cianfrance
• Screenplay: Derek Cianfrance, Kirt Gunn
• Cast: Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Peter Dinklage, LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, Ben Mendelsohn
• Cinematography: Andrij Parekh
• Editing: Jim Helton, Ron Patane
• Score: Christopher Bear
• Genre: Crime comedy
• Runtime: 126 minutes

I went into ‘Roofman‘ with a vague recollection of Jeffrey Manchester’s criminal exploits – he conducted a string of armed robberies, usually targeting McDonald’s joints. The alias ‘Roofman’ came from Manchester’s method of climbing atop the buildings at night, drilling a hole through the roof to gain access to the bathrooms then robbing the cash registers, giving the early morning staff the fright of their lives.

In a turn of events you couldn’t invent, Manchester gets caught, manages to abscond from prison, and in a bid to lay low, hides out in a Toys “R” Us. When the whimsical score began, I immediately thought the treatment of this real-life figure would be a bit breezy. It’s played for laughs – given the outlandish situation, it would be hard not to.

I was won over. Channing Tatum does a great job of making Manchester into an affable anti-hero. He’s not a bad guy at his core; he just wants to provide for his children and is strapped for cash. The decisions he’s made are disastrous yet you can’t help rooting for him to evade capture. Haven’t you always wanted to stay past closing time in a department store? The sequences involving Jeffrey’s nocturnal antics on the shop floor are a lot of fun.

The film packs an unexpected emotional punch in the form of the surrogate family Jeffrey forms with Toys “R” Us employee and love interest, Leigh (Kirsten Dunst), and her two daughters. He can’t return to his old world – that’s gone forever. Someone in his shoes getting a second chance to build a life for themselves is rare, and it’s one that is so precarious.

My rating: 8 / 10