If Roofman wasn’t a true story, it would be hard to believe.
World premiering tonight at the Toronto Film Festival, this Paramount release stars Channing Tatum as Jeffrey Manchester, an Army 82nd Airborne veteran who turned to crime to try and support his wife and three kids after failing to assimilate back into society when he returned from duty in the Middle East in the late ’90s. But it was how and where his criminal enterprises occurred that really sets this incredible story apart.
Manchester, torn apart by not being able to provide for his young daughter Becky and newborn twin boys ingeniously became known as “The Roofman” over the course of time after finding a way to rob North Carolina McDonald’s locations after hours by drilling a hole in the flimsy roofs and making off with all the cash before it could be picked up in the morning. He robbed more than 45 of them before finally being caught after running smack into three employees still working, locking them in the freezer — but nicely — and taking the cash. They were able to identify him, leading police to find him and then sentenced by a judge to 45 years in prison on felony armed robbery and kidnapping charges in 1999.
But he managed to escape in 2004 by hiding out in the underbelly of a truck that frequented the prison and then hitching his way back to Charlotte, where he found refuge in a Toys “R” Us store for the next six months without being detected. Yes, that’s correct. He lived in a Toys “R” Us!
The guy used his near-genius-level smarts to survive there, creating a makeshift bedroom of sorts, sleeping on a rubber pool raft and basically eating Peanut M&Ms for breakfast, lunch and dinner that he would steal when moving freely around the store in its off hours (he was clever enough to turn of the store’s recording camera). He spent his days watching the obnoxious manager, Mitch (Peter Dinklage), berate his employees via a self-created video hookup of baby video monitors, where he got to know them and about their lives — as do we — especially Leigh (Kirsten Dunst), a churchgoing divorced mother of two who he starts falling for, however remotely.
Finally tired of being cooped up, he ventures out through a hole in the adjacent Circuit City store and tracks her down at a church service. There he meets Pastor Ron (Ben Mendelsohn) and his wife, Eileen (Uzo Aduba), and connects with Leigh, leading eventually to a romance and double life outside the store where she works. She has no idea she is hooking up with an escaped prisoner living there.’
Despite being a bit of a con man and a liar about who he really is — he takes the name John and creates a new identity — Jeff is a likable guy, entertaining her kids and finding himself becoming one of the community and the church even as the law is determined to find him. But is he just too smart to ever let them find him? He’s basically hiding in plain sight, and it works, at least for a while. In a way he reminded me of Harold Hill, the role Robert Preston played in The Music Man, a con man who affects several people in a small town, managing to change everyone’s lives, however briefly, giving them an adventure they won’t forget, and maybe even giving him some redemption and even forgiveness along the way.
Director Derek Cianfrance, who co-wrote the film with Kirt Gunn, is best known for darker indie dramas like Blue Valentine (2010) and The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) and the Emmy-winning 2020 HBO limited series, I Know This Much Is True. Here he lightens up a bit and — though true to his filmmaking style of putting the focus on human stories — this one from actual events allows him to widen his net into a combo of crime, comedy, love story and mass-audience crowd-pleaser because that is exactly what Roofman is. Cinefrance keeps it real despite the crazy nature of what actually happened and makes one of those studio movies that studios just don’t seem interested in making much anymore. This time they did. The poster makes it seem like one of those frothy ’80s or ’90s comedies, but this film is so much more.
It is also the role of a lifetime for Tatum, who delivers a performance of charm and complexity playing an exceptionally smart and inventive veteran being tossed aside now. He’s struggling to keep his family together and thinking, no matter how wrongly, that he has no other choice than to turn to robbing fast-food restaurants (how McDonald’s signed off on this, I can’t imagine). At heart he’s a good guy, but it devastated him not being able to be the husband and dad he wants to be.
Along the way he finds acceptance, a new family dynamic, even religion, all the while playing a deception. This is a perfect role for Tatum, who most recently charmed in Dog and The Lost City, both proving his box office prowess. Here he takes it to new levels playing a flawed and complicated man, in real trouble, but one we root for no matter what. It is one of those roles where after you see it you cannot imagine another actor doing it as well.
Dunst matches him, so believable as this small-town divorced mother, dedicated to her church and a job working at Toys “R” Us, just trying to do right by her daughters and perhaps looking for a second chance at love, and finding it in the most unexpected way. This is an actress who seems incapable of a false note, and she and Tatum have the magic, a chemistry you can’t fake that makes this impossible situation all the more heartbreaking.
In a supporting role, LaKeith Stanfield stands out as Steve, Jeff’s Army buddy who, with his girlfriend Michelle (a fine Juno Temple), is the fixer who tries to help him avoid being caught after escaping from prison. Mendelsohn and Aduba are delights are here as well. The real scene-stealer just might be Dinklage, who is pitch-perfect as Mitch, the unsympathetic toy-store boss with an eagle eye for suddenly missing inventory like Peanut M&Ms. His unexpected run-in with Jeff — surprised while taking a shower in the store’s bathroom and then running naked through the store in panic — is priceless.
Cianfrance, as with all this past work, demands authenticity, and in bit parts are some of the real people portrayed in the film, including even the driver of the truck Jeff escaped from prison under (the end credits includes interviews with many of them). Cianfrance also spent years talking with the real Jeff Manchester from prison in the 15-minute intervals allowed in an effort to do justice to the story, and that level of research pays off. Tatum as Manchester narrates the story, much of that coming directly from conversations with Jeff. It adds yet one more layer to this extraordinary story of average Americans just trying to get by, some in ways they shouldn’t.
Another star here is the exacting production design from Inbal Weinberg, especially in restoring an actual abandoned Toys “R” Us store found outside Charlotte that is re-created to look like the glory days when it thrived. It’s perfect. So is Roofman — the best time I have had in a movie all year.
Producers are Jamie Patricof, Lynette Howell Taylor, Alex Orlovsky, Duncan Montgomery and Dylan Sellers.
Title: Roofman
Festival: Toronto
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: October 10, 2025
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Screenwriters: Derek Cianfrance and Kirt Gunn
Cast: Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Ben Mendelsohn, LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, Melonie Diaz, Uzo Aduba, Lily Collias, Jimmy O. Yang, Kennedy Mauve Moyer
Running time: 2 hr 6 mins