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Since about the year 2000, people have been griping that there are no good original movies anymore -- it's all reboots, sequels and superheroes. Well, here's a good movie that's none of those, and of course it's flopping.
Although I will say that I had one guy ask me if "Roofman" was "one of them Marvel characters," but I digress.
This is based on a true story, and a pretty odd story it is. Channing Tatum plays Jeffrey Manchester, a guy who breaks into McDonalds restaurants for a living by cutting holes in their roofs, hence the title. He's known as a nice guy, apologizing to the staff when they show up for work and insisting they put their coats on before locking them in the cooler while he cleans out the cash registers. (I would expect there wouldn't be much cash on hand that early in the day, but then this takes place in the more innocent times when maybe nightly bank drops weren't as much of a thing, but I digress again.)
He gets caught, naturally, but then breaks out of prison and that's where things really get interesting. He sets up a hideout behind a large display unit in a Toys R Us store and lives there for a few months. While there, he figures out how to disable the store's security cameras, binges on Peanut M&Ms, and manages to sneak in and out apparently at will, enough to where he has the time to visit a local church, meet a woman there, and eventually fall in love with her, while claiming he can't tell her where he lives due to the "secret" nature of his work. He also rips off toys and other goodies and builds his reputation as a nice guy by donating the stolen stuff to kids. Eventually, of course, the whole thing comes crashing down, and that's where the movie turns a little more dramatic as the impact of what Jeffrey has done, not just to himself, but to everyone around him, comes into focus.
"Roofman" is sort-of promoted as a comedy, and it has some funny moments, but it's surprisingly touching in a lot of ways. Channing Tatum does a tremendous turn as an inventive, clever, yet kinda stupid "good bad guy," who basically paints himself into a corner with his life choices. The last part of the movie reminds me a bit of the old George Burns film "Going In Style," in which Burns and his two buddies rob a bank, and eventually Burns winds up in prison and satisfied with his lot, figuring "they treat me good" and he gets three squares a day. The difference is, Jeffrey finds his time in prison allows him to reflect on what his life has meant, and how his life might have gone had he taken a different course.
Kirsten Dunst is fine as the woman he falls in love with when he's not holed up in the toy store; and LaKeith Stanfield deserved more screen time as Jeffrey's friend "on the outside" who helps him stay one step ahead of the law.
The movie ends, as a lot of these "based on a true story" type movies do, with news clips, pictures, and even some interviews with the real people in the story. Everyone except Manchester, who is still in prison and thus probably not available for comment.
This is a movie that might have had a better chance of finding an audience if it had a PG-13 rating. The R is mostly for language (and a rather substantial amount of Channing Tatum's butt-type nudity) but could have easily been scaled back to a PG-13. Teenagers especially could benefit from the underlying moral of the story.
It's a good movie and I liked it a lot. Four out of five stars from me.
Sound mix was good, if unexciting, but it's not that kind of movie. It would have worked fine in mono, really.