I don’t do biographies. They’re the most boring genre to ever crawl into cinema. But, when I saw this was a biography of Jeffrey Manchester, I was instantly gripped because it felt like a rumour I half remembered. The guy who robbed McDonald’s from the roof. After watching the film, I looked up the real crime story on Wiki and tbh, the film does try to take on that real-life madness and shape it into a story that’s equal parts wild and frustrating.
From the opening scenes, the film leans into that nostalgic, early 2000s Americana vibe but the tone shifts quickly to something that suggests it isn’t anything like Hollywood’s slick, bulletproof criminal. This is Jeffrey Manchester, a soft-spoken Army vet whose nice guy robber persona makes you roll your eyes. Like, he should have picked a freaking side. If you want to be a thief, be a thief. Don’t hold people hostage, steal from them and still act all polite because when the cops pull up, trust me they're not going to say, “Oh well, he was polite about it, so let's forgive his ass.”
The actor playing Jeffrey mirrors the real man’s weirdly disarming charm so well that at moments you forget you’re watching a criminal. But then he does something baffling and you’re instantly snapped back. Like that absolutely foolish detour to go see his girlfriend, Leigh. Like sir, you just escaped prison. You are hiding inside a Toys “R” Us. The police are very much looking for you. And instead of sprinting into freedom, you’re risking your own life because of romance? If I could go back in time and punch some sense into him through my screen I would have.
But here’s the thing though. The movie really shines in the way it rebuilds the real events, the long nights Jeffrey spent camping out inside the toy store, the unsettling use of baby monitors to spy on employees, the absurd double life he built while hiding in plain sight. It’s surreal, but it’s true surreal, and that makes it land harder. The film doesn’t stretch the truth, although I know some scenes are dramatized for storytelling purposes.
I guess I was up for a rant so I sidetracked a bit from the synopsis so here goes…
A former Army vet turns into a serial roof-entry robber, gets caught, escapes prison, and hides inside a toy store while starting a relationship with a woman who has no idea he’s on the run, until everything unravels.
For me, the best part is how faithfully they connect the story to actual documented facts. You can genuinely feel that this isn’t fictional exaggeration, it’s rooted in interviews, reports, and the bizarre public memory of a man who managed to be both clever and unbelievably reckless.
And yet, I like how the film didn’t try to sanitize him. His niceness isn’t framed as charm but as the delusion it actually is. Because niceness doesn’t erase damage. It doesn’t undo robberies. And it definitely doesn’t make running back to see your girlfriend mid-escape anything less than catastrophically dumb.
In the end, Roofman is one of those films that leaves you entertained but also slightly annoyed, not actually because it’s bad, but because the real story is so absurd you want to reach into the screen and shake the man. It’s good, has its strengths in truth and is surprisingly emotional.
Rating 4/5