‘Roofman’ overview: Tatum, Dunst flirt by way of true-life crime film

Starring Channing Tatum as a tender-souled legal who falls for Kirsten Dunst’s divorced mother, “Roofman” is an effective time deliberate by a celebration pooper. That’s not essentially a nasty factor — actually, it retains you in your toes. But it surely does imply that Derek Cianfrance’s model of a bad-boy romance will characteristic extra tears and jolts than the style sometimes requires, and extra goofy humor than you would possibly anticipate from the director behind gut-scooping grownup dramas as “Blue Valentine.”

It’s based mostly on a real story from the late ’90s and once you’re inclined to assume sure components had been invented, end-crawl information footage and interviews reinforce that stranger-than-fiction adage. Certainly, Jeffrey Manchester (Tatum) actually was a rootless ex-military dad who, spurred by an Military pal (a droll LaKeith Stanfield) to use his appreciable survival abilities towards getting his life collectively, opted to offer for his children by breaking into McDonald’s eating places — 45 in all, his methodology of entry incomes him the titular nickname.

Cianfrance, who wrote the screenplay with Kirt Gunn, asserts his method to this materials in the course of the opening stickup. The fast-food staff look as realistically stricken as you’d anticipate going through a masked hulk wielding a rifle, herding them into the freezer. However Jeffrey, clearly preventing what a tender contact he’s, offers the shivering supervisor his coat. Tatum is right casting as a result of his dimension is severe, his actions intentional, however these eyes, that voice — is that your coronary heart being pilfered together with all that money?

And but Jeffrey is caught — at his child’s loot-financed birthday celebration, no much less — and sentenced. However, as we charmingly uncover, even the lengthy arm of the regulation typically can’t contact your status. Additionally undeniably cute in a needed man: craftily turning a Toys “R” Us right into a hideout. Jeffrey secretly commandeers an enclosed area behind an enormous show, utilizing child displays to maintain tabs on the shop’s operations and, when alone, acts like the massive child that’s admittedly gotten him to this unusual nook in life.

However when he observes how the supervisor (a pitch-perfect Peter Dinklage) acts dismissively towards Leigh (Dunst), a single mother who simply needs a neater schedule and toys for her church drive, Jeffrey’s nice-guy impulses convey him into the open. A stolen-toy donation for Leigh’s church results in flirting, a date, then a relationship and ultimately a take a look at of how far a captivating rogue’s dangerous deception can final in untenable circumstances.

Cianfrance exhibits a gratifying nimbleness with the lighthearted components of this working-class fable, giving Tatum loads of room to be lovable, whether or not attempting to win over Leigh’s daughters (the older, surlier one performed by breakout star Lily Collias of “Good One”) or, in a properly farcical bit, narrowly avoiding seize within the nude. Dunst, an ideal chemistry match with Tatum’s full-court charisma, is her personal beaming but grounded vitality supply. “Roofman” performs like an indie drama photobombing a studio rom-com.

The film is simply too dishevelled to accommodate each good vibes and extra pressing crime-movie realities. At occasions, depth is sacrificed for cutes, characters appear superfluous (like Ben Mendelsohn and Uzo Aduba as cheery church leaders) and a few scenes fall flat. However Cianfrance has at all times operated by really feel and religion that dialing into his actors will unearth truths about unhealthy selections and good hearts. “Roofman,” with its breezy decency, is aware of learn how to finesse simply the correct quantity of compassion for larceny.