At one time on their TV show in the late 1990s, critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert commented some “based on a true story” movies work better sometimes as just a magazine story.
I agree. A movie like Roofman is a perfect testament to that.
At two hours with credits including real testimonials from his victims, this is mostly a movie that might have worked at an hour and a half. It might have also worked if director Derek Cianfrance, who also co-wrote the script, could’ve picked a tone and focused less on the relationship between the real life Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum) and Leigh Wainscott (Kirsten Dunst) which drags the second half of the movie.
Jeffrey was a U.S. Army reserve soldier who began to rob fast-food restaurants and retail stores after realizing the layouts looked the same. This happened over a course of a couple of years squeezed into less than 15 minutes. Sent to prison for robbery and kidnapping for 45 years in a North Carolina prison, he devised a scheme to escape that’s pretty impressive. So, I won’t give it away here.
It’s just a shame the exploits of his years as a robber are basically given the Seinfeld “Yadda-Yadda-Yadda” treatment while his ex-wife, Talana (Melonie Diaz) is reduced to a nagging stereotype. From the start the movie tries to excuse his crime spree as a rationale for providing money for his children, who are quickly forgotten about within the first half hour. But I’m not buying it and neither will you.
After he escapes from prison, Jeffrey steps into a Toys R Us in the Charlotte suburbs only to discover he can hide safely in a small hollow area between the storage/backroom wall and a bicycle display wall. The movie never questions why no one bothered to check this area even after the store manager, Mitch (Peter Dinklage), walks into work earlier than usual one morning as Jeffrey is naked and cover in soap from washing in the men’s restroom. This is one of the movie’s few good scenes and a nice demo of what this movie could’ve been.
How Jeffrey gets out of this situation is both clever and creative. It also helps that Mitch is one huge dick to all his employees but when he sees he’s not in a position to overstep his authority, he screams and goes running to the safety of his back office like the wimp he is.
And not that I don’t like Dunst, but there was just something about her portrayal of Leigh that didn’t really stick with me. Maybe it’s because the movie turns into a generic romcom with Leigh initially mistaking Jeffrey, calling himself “John Zorn”, for being gay. But didn’t she wonder why he was always coming to her apartment yet he never invited her to his home? In real life, Manchester took refuge in the Toys R Us as well as the nearby Circuit City.
I also felt it questionable how Jeffrey could survive off peanut M&Ms and baby food for months. There’s just a throwaway line of Jeffrey going to the dentist to discover he has a lot of cavities. Tatum lost a little weight you can see but I doubt he was able to find all the clothes he could wear at a Toys R Us. It’s these little plotholes that are nagging us.
Also, Jeffrey stole video games and other merchandise that he sold to get money. And when the movie turns to him donating toys to a nearby church, I felt it was trying to make Jeffrey more of a nice guy than Mitch. Yes, the store was just going to write off these toys that didn’t sell. It just so happens that Leigh works here and doesn’t notice these are the same toys.
There’s so many little things that make this movie hard to totally buy. It bounces back and forth between quirky crime movie (which is was advertised as) to some morality story trying to portray Jeffrey as a better guy than Mitch. And to be honest, I could’ve done without the whole church people subplot which never does seem authentic. That’s not a criticism of religion but of how it’s handled as they all seem one-dimensional and stereotypical.
Also we have to endure Leigh’s daughters having different opinions on Jeffrey. Her youngest, Dee (Kennedy Moyer), likes him because he brings her stuff. The eldest, Lindsey (Lily Colias), doesn’t like him. It’s no surprise this movie is set around 2004-2005 the same time The 40-Year-Old Virgin came out and the daughters to Catherine Keener’s character acted the same.
I’m sure it might have happened in real life this way but sometimes it doesn’t really translate well into a movie. And that’s the overall problem. There’s no way you can find much empathy for Jeffrey and what he did. Many people on the run from the law often find themselves stuck in their own prisons.
Maybe the filmmakers were pushing for something when they show his sleeping quarters were the same dimensions of a prison cell. But it never does work the way they might have thought. There’s no substance to a man hiding in a toy store for months.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 