Based on a true story, "Roofman" tells the tale of a dumb-criminal-genius, Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum), a man who robbed fast food restaurants by breaking through their roofs. After he's arrested and tried, he escapes prison, and hides in a Toys R' Us store for an extended period. While holed up, he manages to attend church and even meet a single mother (Kirsten Dunst) by sneaking out late at night and pretending to be a classified government employee.
This is a charming, likeable dramedy, no doubt. Tatum is often charismatic beyond belief, and here he embodies another real-life persona by exhuming goodness even at times when he's holding a gun and robbing people. However, the movie is loaded by logical inaccuracies, such as how does Jeffrey keep sneaking out of the store, unseen by all during normal daylight hours? The protagonist's fateful decision to stop-off somewhere on his way to the airport dooms his destiny - the same way the gangster we loved to hate did in "Heat".
"Roofman" is entertaining for about seventy-five percent of its running time; for the remainder, it is trying too hard, and left me wondering who's really dumber: the audience that'll buy the absurdity of its so called "real" events, or the employees at Toys R'Us, who were too obtuse to look behind a hollow wall on which bicycles were stacked? You tell me.
☆☆1/2
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