Solid: Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Ben Mendelsohn, LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, Peter Dinklage
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Score: ★★★.5
Roofman arrives as an unlikely entry in Derek Cianfrance’s filmography — a filmmaker greatest identified for bruised romances and ethical unease — taking inspiration from a true-crime oddity that sounds nearly fictional. Set within the mid-2000s, the movie follows Manchester (Channing Tatum), a father struggling to re-enter civilian life after army service. Gifted with near-obsessive powers of remark, he channels that talent right into a sequence of meticulously deliberate, non-violent robberies, coming into fast-food eating places by means of their roofs and treating workers with disarming courtesy.
When he’s lastly caught and handed a protracted jail sentence, Manchester engineers a daring escape and disappears — not into one other metropolis, however into the hidden rafters of a Toys “R” Us retailer. From there, he secretly observes the lives beneath, forming routines, attachments and ultimately a dangerous romance below a false id.
The nice
Derek approaches the fabric with stunning tenderness. Quite than sensationalising the crimes, Roofman is taken with loneliness — the ache of watching regular life unfold simply out of attain. Channing delivers certainly one of his most restrained performances, shedding swagger for vulnerability. His Manchester is soft-spoken, well mannered, and visibly worn down by the hole between good intentions and dangerous choices. The position recollects his work in Foxcatcher, however with extra heat and melancholy.
Kirsten Dunst is the movie’s quiet anchor. As Leigh, a divorced single mom working on the toy retailer, she brings lived-in realism and emotional intelligence, disappearing into the position with easy grace. Their chemistry feels unforced, rooted in shared exhaustion quite than cinematic sparks. Robust help comes from LaKeith Stanfield as Manchester’s morally versatile good friend, Peter Dinklage as a inflexible retailer supervisor, and Juno Temple, who provides unstable power on the margins.
Christopher Bear’s rating and the movie’s intentionally old-school aesthetic give Roofman the feel of a mid-budget studio drama from one other period — modest, honest and faintly nostalgic.
The dangerous
For all its empathy, Roofman is typically too desirous to make its protagonist lovable. The movie rushes by means of Manchester’s descent into crime, flattening psychological complexity right into a tidy emotional arc. His actions — repeated robberies, lies, and collateral harm — by no means really feel as troubling as they need to. As stress builds and penalties loom, the movie’s insistence on gentleness dulls its dramatic stakes. Visually, the movie can really feel muted to the purpose of drabness, and the romance sometimes slips into acquainted beats with out including a lot specificity.
The decision
Roofman is a wierd, honest crowd-pleaser — sentimental however not cynical, humane however sometimes evasive. It could cease wanting true ethical battle, however it compensates with heat, robust performances and an old style perception in character over spectacle. It’s possible you’ll query its sympathies, however it’s onerous to not really feel its quiet pull.
Roofman will begin streaming in India on Lionsgate Play from December 19 onwards