Rent Roofman (2025)

High-Rise Hearts, Low-Key Laughs - Roofman review by griggs

The trailers had me primed for a daft action comedy, all pratfalls and parkour, so it was a surprise when Roofman turned out to be… tender. There are laughs and the odd scuffle, sure, but the film’s far more interested in what happens when two lonely people keep meeting on the edges of things – skylines, fire escapes, the end of their tether.

Once you realise it’s really a melancholic romance with some rooftop antics on top, it clicks. The set-pieces are smaller than advertised, but they’re quietly charming: cigarette breaks several storeys up, midnight confessions over satellite dishes, that sense of a city humming underneath while these two work out who they are to each other.

It’s not as funny or as punchy as the marketing promised, and a couple of gags land with a thud. But as a gentle story about misfits trying to connect above street level, Roofman has a scruffy, winsome pull I wasn’t expecting.

Ok Crime Comedy/Drama - Roofman review by GI

Based on a true story this is a perfectly ok comedy drama with a couple of charismatic leading stars but at the same time it's a fairly routine starry eyed view of a violent criminal that's been done before and by the end it's all watchable but just the once. Channing Tatum plays Jeffrey Manchester, a former soldier struggling to fit into civilian life who dotes on his children but his marriage has collapsed. In order to provide for them he embarks on an armed robbery spree which the film skirts over and presents Manchester as a sort of hard done by Robin Hood type, all smiles and caring even while he no doubt scared people half to death! He gets caught and heavily sentenced but uses his skills as an observant soldier to plan and execute a subtle escape and returns to his home town. He hides out in a local Toy Store waiting for a friend to secure him a new identity. Bored and trapped he begins watching the store staff including the odious manager (Peter Dinklage) and divorcee, Leigh (Kirsten Dunst), to whom he becomes attracted. Eventually he ventures out of his sanctuary to meet her and a romance develops but soon it all goes awry. If a total fiction then this may have retained more charm as a romantic crime comedy but the reality behind it seems to overshadow the film and there's the inevitable and cliched end credits stuff with the real people behind the characters. There's too little comedy, nearly all of it comes from Dinklage, and the romance is fine but predictable. Tatum and Dunst have a great chemistry and overall it's an entertaining if rather average film.