Roofman Movie Review: Interesting Tale but It Takes Too Long to Tell

If you think it would be boring hiding in a Toys “R” Us for six months, try watching a movie about someone hiding in a Toys “R” Us for six months.  It seemed longer.

Based on a true story, Channing Tatum gives a strong yet restrained performance as military veteran Jeffrey Manchester who takes to robbing McDonald’s, by breaking in through the roof, in order to provide for his family.  He becomes successful at these happy steals (you’re welcome) and is referred to as “Roofman” by authorities.  He eventually gets caught, sentenced to prison, escapes, and has to hide out until his friend (LaKeith Stanfield) can help him get out of the country.  This part of the film does a respectable job of establishing the lead character, but it takes too long and ultimately seems like it is needed simply to justify the title.

So now Jeff needs a place to hold up. He’s an escaped convict with no money and nowhere to go. He goes into a soon-to-be-closing-for-the-night Toys “R” Us, gets into the ceiling through the tiles in the bathroom, and hides until the store closes. Jeff eventually sets up a prison away from prison inside a bicycle display case and starts living off peanut M&M’s. Toys “R” Us are not known for their grocery selection.

Jeff lives there for months after devising a way to get in and out undetected. He slowly becomes invested in the lives of the employees as he has nothing else to do but watch them. After making a toy donation at the local Church where Toys “R” Us employee Leigh (Kirsten Dunst) volunteers, Jeff begins attending the church and dating Leigh while selling merchandise from the store at a local pawn shop.

This is an intriguing story, and the movie is full of solid performances. Tatum has an expressive face that he utilizes perfectly. The problem is with director Derek Cianfrance who also shares writing credit with Kirt Gunn. This movie is painfully slow and certainly seems much longer than its 126-minute running time. 

As I understand it, there was much research and fact verification put into the telling of this story, but if there are things that do not make sense, it’s going to be a distraction to the audience. Mitch, the manager of the store that no one enjoys working for, portrayed perfectly by Peter Dinklage, brings up to his employees that there are Peanut M&Ms missing, but never mentions the thousands of dollars of merchandise that Jeff has sold for spending money?

It was so nice to be back in a movie theatre on a Sunday afternoon with a trough of popcorn and bucket of soda, but Roofman had me looking at my watch halfway through the story.  Jeff may have been content with hanging out at a Toys “R” Us for a few months, but I couldn’t take two hours of it.

I’ll admit that I may watch this on television in a few months and like it more than I did on Sunday, but for now, I gotta give it Ron’s Rejection.