Movie Review: Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst bring humanity to true-crime tale ‘Roofman’

Down on his luck divorced dad who resorts to crime is becoming familiar territory for Channing Tatum as an actor. In “Logan Lucky” his mark was the Charlotte Motor Speedway. In “Roofman,”in theaters Friday, it’s McDonald’s. In both films, there’s a young daughter he wants to impress. The big, heartbreaking difference is that “Roofman” isn’t just some fun, eccentric caper — it’s based on a wild true story, involving a prison escape, a six-month secret stay inside Toys “R” Us and a local girlfriend who was none-the-wiser to his criminal ways.

The film, directed by Derek Cianfrance, who co-wrote the script with Kirt Gunn, takes some important liberties in telling the story of Jeffrey Manchester, though many of the wildest beats did actually happen, including offering up his coat to a McDonald’s employee he was robbing. It’s suspected that he hit over 40 of the fast-food joints across the country before he was nabbed in North Carolina.

After escaping from prison, where he was serving a 45-year sentence (mostly stemming from kidnapping charges), he really did live behind a bike display in a Charlotte Toys “R” Us, ate baby food to survive, decorated his makeshift bed with Spider-Man sheets and eventually started venturing out into the town and attending a local church where he began dating a single mom.

In “Roofman,” Jeffery’s life of crime starts with a minor humiliation. Already divorced, the U.S. Army veteran asks his daughter what she wants for her 6th birthday as she’s blowing out the candles, which just seems to be setting himself up for failure. She wants a bike, which is out of his price range, and he has the grand idea to start robbing. It works until it doesn’t.