Roofman

ROOFMAN R 126 Minutes Director: Derek Cianfrance Writers: Derek Cianfrance, Kirt Gunn Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, LaKeith Stanfield

CAST

• Channing Tatum...Jeffrey Manchester
• Kirsten Dunst...Leigh Wainscott
• LaKeith Stanfield...Steve
• Juno Temple...Michelle
• Peter Dinklage...Mitch
• Ben Mendelsohn...Ron Smith
• Uzo Aduba...Eileen Smith
• Melonie Diaz...Talana
• Emory Cohen...Otis
• Molly Price...Sgt. Katherine Scheimreif

It’s a tale as old as time: robbing McDonald’s through the roof after they close. Except the employees are still there, and because he’s such a nice guy, he locks them in the fridge. Don’t worry—he calls the authorities afterward so they can get out. As if nothing could possibly go wrong in the time between him leaving and help showing up. It seems so easy and straightforward, it’s a wonder I haven’t done it yet.

ROOFMAN opens right in the middle of Jeffrey Manchester’s routine—dropping through ceilings and calmly cleaning out registers like he actually works at McDonald’s. He’s good at it, but eventually he gets caught. After robbing 45 different McDonald’s locations, Manchester is sentenced to 45 years in prison.

Prison doesn't agree with him. Almost immediately, he's scanning routines and weaknesses like he's back casing a McDonald’s. His escape is hiding in a false bottom he built in a box truck—low-tech in concept, but it actually takes some decent planning and work to pull off. This isn’t a movie about a criminal mastermind—it’s about persistence and not getting noticed.

Once he’s out, Manchester disappears into the world’s most bizarre safe house: a Toys “R” Us. He shuts off the cameras and moves into an inconspicuous corner of the store, surviving on a steady diet of Peanut M&M’s and whatever merchandise he can flip at the local pawn shop. It’s a middle-aged man living out a childhood fantasy as a survival strategy, like an alternate version of BIG where Tom Hanks never gets to go home. Here, Manchester isn’t liberated by the toy store — he’s imprisoned by the neon aisles and shiny new toys, spying on the employees with baby monitors.

Channing Tatum drops the usual MAGIC MIKE charm and plays Manchester with this low-key, vacant energy that actually works. He’s not going for swaggering outlaw or cool rebel—just a socially awkward guy who's oddly polite while making one bad decision after another. Even in that dumb blonde wig for the fake passport photo, he lets himself look a little pathetic, and it makes for a better movie.

Ginger-haired freak, Kirsten Dunst shows up and does what she’s been doing for the last decade—playing grounded wife/mom types with a quiet sadness humming underneath. It’s the kind of role she’s been playing since FARGO, and she’s still very good at it. Here, her weariness plays off Manchester’s blank detachment: she feels everything, he feels almost nothing, and somehow that makes their scenes land without forcing it.

The problem is that ROOFMAN eventually falls into the familiar “based on a true story” trap. Once Manchester meets Leigh, the trajectory becomes obvious. He grows attached to her kids. He lives a lie he can’t sustain. You know he’s going to disappoint everyone involved, and you know how it’s going to end long before the movie gets there. At over two hours, it lingers too long on Jeff’s isolation, stretching what could have been a tight 90-minute oddity.

Still, there’s an offbeat weirdness that kept me watching. Strange without feeling random, quiet without being dull. A movie about a grown man surviving on pawned toys and candy sounds like a stretch, but it’s more engaging than the premise suggests.

Final Verdict: 65 out of 100

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale

DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE PG 124 Minutes Director: Simon Curtis Writer: Julian Fellowes Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern CAST Hugh Bonneville...Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham Michelle Dockery...Lady Mary Talbot Elizabeth McGovern...Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham Jim Carter...Charles Carson Laura Carmichael...Lady Edith Pelham Harry Hadden-Paton...Bertie Pelham, Marquess of Hexham Allen Leech...Tom Branson Penelope Wilton...Isobel Grey, Lady Merton Joanne Froggatt...Anna Bates Brendan Coyle...John Bates Robert James-Collier...Thomas Barrow Phyllis Logan...Elsie Carson Sophie McShera...Daisy Parker Lesley Nicol...Mrs. Patmore Paul Giamatti...Harold Levinson Dominic West...Guy Dexter Alessandro Nivola...Gus Sambrook Imelda Staunton...Maud, Lady Bagshaw

With a title like DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE, you know things are about to end. It’s the film equivalent of a farewell tour. And like any farewell tour, you half-wonder if they really mean it, or if someone will need more money in a few years. The Who did their first, and only, farewell tour in 1982. We’ve all seen how that turned out.

This time we’re in 1930, with the Crawleys juggling scandal, money trouble, and the slow, painful realization that the world is moving on without them. Lady Mary is divorced now, and her love life is once again a headache for everyone around her. Her entanglement with Gus, a charming financial “wizard” who turns out to be more con man than savior, helps drag the Granthams to the edge of social ruin. For a hot minute, the family becomes polite society’s problem child, and you can feel how fragile their place in the world really is.

Meanwhile, Cora’s American fortune isn’t just dented; it’s basically gone. Harold has managed to lose what his mother built, and Gus has his fingerprints all over the mess. Watching Cora and Robert face the fact that Downton can’t keep coasting on ancient money forever gives this movie more bite than you might expect from what could’ve been a pure nostalgia tour.

Downstairs, life keeps rearranging itself. Daisy is taking over for Mrs. Patmore in the kitchen, which feels both right and a little terrifying. Anna and Bates are moving with Robert and Cora to the Dower House, where Anna is pregnant again at forty-four. It’s technically possible, but in 1930 it feels like the script is pushing its luck. Still, I’m rooting for Anna and her sixty-one-year-old husband. They’ve earned their improbable happiness.

Mr. Carson is now retired, supposedly settling into a quiet life with Elsie. He loves her, obviously, but you can already see the boredom setting in behind the proud posture. A man who lived for silver-polishing and protocol is suddenly supposed to enjoy village committees and garden paths. Good luck with that.

What’s missing, of course, is Granny. The film does what it can with memory and echo, but it’s not the same without the Dowager Countess dropping one-liners like depth charges. You feel that absence in almost every room. The show has always been about change, but this is the first time it really feels like loss.

You come in expecting fan service, and you definitely get it—old faces, callbacks, little grace notes for long-time viewers. But you also get a bit more: a genuine attempt to reckon with what happens when an entire way of life reaches its expiration date and everyone has to find a softer landing than “happily ever after at the big house.”

DOWNTON ABBEY has always leaned toward mostly happy endings with a few tragedies sprinkled in for good measure. That’s not realistic; I know that. But I still like that most of my favorite characters get to land somewhere gentle—if not perfect—by the time the credits roll. The parents are moving out of Downton, Mary is fully in charge, the staff is aging into new roles, and the place we’ve been visiting for fifteen years finally feels ready to go on without us.

If this were a TV special, I’d say it was a great one. As a movie, it’s a good one—handsomely made, emotionally satisfying, and maybe a little too comfortable. With a movie, you expect a little something extra. THE GRAND FINALE doesn’t quite transcend its origins, but as a long goodbye to these people and this house, it’s hard to ask for much more.

Final Verdict: 78 out of 100