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.
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, Roofman is interested in loneliness — the ache of watching normal life unfold just out of reach. Channing delivers one of his most restrained performances, shedding swagger for vulnerability. His Manchester is soft-spoken, polite, and visibly worn down by the gap between good intentions and bad decisions. The role recalls his work in Foxcatcher, but with more warmth and melancholy.
Kirsten Dunst is the film’s quiet anchor. As Leigh, a divorced single mother working at the toy store, she brings lived-in realism and emotional intelligence, disappearing into the role with effortless grace. Their chemistry feels unforced, rooted in shared exhaustion rather than cinematic sparks. Strong support comes from LaKeith Stanfield as Manchester’s morally flexible friend, Peter Dinklage as a rigid store manager, and Juno Temple, who adds volatile energy on the margins.
Christopher Bear’s score and the film’s deliberately old-school aesthetic give Roofman the texture of a mid-budget studio drama from another era — modest, sincere and faintly nostalgic.
The bad
For all its empathy, Roofman is sometimes too eager to make its protagonist lovable. The film rushes through Manchester’s descent into crime, flattening psychological complexity into a tidy emotional arc. His actions — repeated robberies, lies, and collateral damage — never feel as troubling as they should. As tension builds and consequences loom, the film’s insistence on gentleness dulls its dramatic stakes. Visually, the film can feel muted to the point of drabness, and the romance occasionally slips into familiar beats without adding much specificity.
The verdict
Roofman is a strange, sincere crowd-pleaser — sentimental but not cynical, humane but occasionally evasive. It may stop short of true moral conflict, but it compensates with warmth, strong performances and an old-fashioned belief in character over spectacle. You may question its sympathies, but it’s hard not to feel its quiet pull.
Roofman will start streaming in India on Lionsgate Play from December 19 onwards
