Roofman – Review

An almost unbelievable true story is played out in Roofman, featuring an ex-army airborne division soldier Jeffrey Manchester (Tatum) putting his observational skills into a life of crime. Jeff is a family man who absolutely adores his daughter, but is divorced from his wife and down on his luck. He doesn’t have money for good birthday presents, and feels embarrassed to not be able to provide for her how he wants to.

He spends time with his former sergeant and pal Steve (Stanfield), who himself makes money on the low with fake IDs and passports. Steve reminds Jeff that he was an expert observer, often noticing subtle things that others in the unit did not, and making for an excellent recon man. This sparks Jeff’s idea wheelhouse, as he watches a McDonald’s employee scale a ladder to the roof of the franchise restaurant, presumably to do some maintenance work. After a quick scan of the insides, Jeff decides he knows the lay of the land well enough, especially since he worked at a location.

Time for a robbery, of course… Jeff continues to use his roof drilling skills to break into 40+ McDonald’s’ and other small business locations, and even is dubbed the ‘Roofman’ by media attention which eventually catches on to his modus operandi. Eventually… this leads to Jeff’s arrest, and separation from his wife and three kids, who look to resume their lives without his criminal antics sullying things.

But, this is just the beginning of Jeff’s story, as he makes his way back to society (via additional criminal means), and winds up housing up in a Toys ‘R Us and assimilating back into the population with a new name, John Zorn. What will he do next? Well, it was very likely that he would resume stealing. What was less likely is that he would find romance, a church, and try to make a real life out of this crazy situation.

The real story is very much represented in this film, even if they cut down some of the events, and kept him solely in a Toys ‘R Us (in real life he also moved into an abandoned Circuit City for a while), but despite its dark comedy edge, it is presented mostly with respect, all things considered. Jeff/John was not a true bad guy, and always was apologizing to his victims for what he was doing, but he also definitely was breaking all sorts of laws.

The acting is very sound, and Jeff is somewhat sympathetic, as it always sucks for anyone to struggle with employment and the lack of funds in an extremely capitalistic society. There are no excuses for what he did, and stealing is stealing, however these events present an interesting look into how desperation pushes people to do stuff that sounds like it is purely made up for the movies.

Well-acted, and certainly a unique and strange true story, Roofman is worth a watch.