Roofman movie review: Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst anchor a soft-edged true-crime tale
Cast: Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Ben Mendelsohn, LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, Peter Dinklage Director: Derek Cianfrance Rating: ★★★.5 Roofman arrives as an unlikely entry in Derek Cianfrance’s filmography — a filmmaker best known for bruised romances and moral unease — taking inspiration from a true-crime oddity that sounds almost fictional. Set in the mid-2000s, the film follows Manchester (Channing Tatum), a father struggling to re-enter civilian life after military service. Gifted with near-obsessive powers of observation, he channels that skill into a series of meticulously planned, non-violent robberies, entering fast-food restaurants through their roofs and treating employees with disarming courtesy. Channing Tatum in a still from Roofman When he is finally caught and handed a long prison sentence, Manchester engineers a daring escape and disappears — not into another city, but into the hidden rafters of a Toys “R” Us store. From there, he secretly observes the lives below, forming routines, attachments and eventually a risky romance under a false identity. The good Derek approaches the material with surprising tenderness. Rather than sensationalising the crimes, …


