Awwwwww…he’s the most likable bad guy ever! Or at least this year. I think. Subsequently? Hard not to love a film where the hero is making an escape on foot from the police while wearing a feather boa and a plastic crown. (It was his daughter’s birthday, and he was embarrassed not to be able to afford better presents, like the year before.)
Jeffrey Manchester is as colorful, innovative, and charming as villains get. Doesn’t hurt that he looks like Channing Tatum, either. Called “Roofman” for his M.O. of robbing from above, I personally would find this guy a pain in the ass. Window? Door? Alarm system? These expenses I might be able to handle, but I just got a new roof, and I guarantee it cost more than the entire contents of everything below it. It’s like those guys who steal catalytic converters or bicycle tires – you can’t possibly fence this this for anywhere near what it cost to replace.
And yet, we like Jeffrey. Why? Because he apologizes when holding people hostage. He doesn’t really want to do it. On his last heist, he forces the employees into their walk-in freezer. Dave forgot to bring his coat. The Roofman gives him his coat. Awwwwww. It almost makes you forget they were being held at gunpoint.
While Roofman can’t seem to hold down a job (has he even tried?), he has a knack for detail, which helps him escape from prison, and he has a pretty good sense of human nature, for he doesn’t depart the Charlotte metro area as the authorities assume. Instead, he hides after hours in a Toys R Us, and eventually holes up in a store cavity behind a bicycle display. It’s all very clever.
There are drawbacks from being off the grid, of course. A big one is meals entirely consisting of candy sold at Toys R Us. An adult with 14 cavities is a tragedy. One thing that should be lost on nobody who sees Jeffrey nest like a rat in the Toys R Us maze is that this guy is “free” only in that he is no longer incarcerated by the authorities. In reality, Jeffrey has exchanged one prison for another. Oh, there are certainly plusses to his current prison: toys, mischief, space, distinct lack of sociopaths. OTOH, jail offers more than meets the eye as well: food, fresh air, somebody to talk to. Living after hours in a Toys R Us would be fun
right up to the point where you realize you’re doing it alone, forever.
A film like this can’t survive on antics alone, so it has given Jeffrey somebody to care about, Leigh (Kirsten Dunst). This is the part where I wonder how close the reality jives with the recreation. I imagine I will never know.
Roofman is worth a watch, especially if you can summon empathy for the career criminal. I suspect, in the very least, that the real guy doesn’t quite have Channing’s charm, but what do I know? The film got a little deeper than I had anticipated, which is a nice surprise; often crime films limit themselves to the crime. Here’s one that decided it could be a little more. You get to decide whether or not it was successful.
A thief who drops in from the roof
Chose a Toy Store to be more aloof
His problems all solved
Now he’s getting involved
With a woman who requires more proof
Rated R, 126 Minutes
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Writer: Derek Cianfrance, Kirt Gunn
Genre: Rootin’ for the bad guy
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Thieves
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Anybody who has ever been held up at gunpoint
