AILSA CHANG, HOST:
A real-life crime spree has inspired a movie dramedy called "Roofman." It stars Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst, and critic Bob Mondello expects audiences will be charmed.
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: We begin "Roofman" naturally on a roof with a masked figure played by Channing Tatum breaking into a McDonald's from above. He will hide inside overnight before surprising the staff as they arrive.
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CHANNING TATUM: (As Jeffrey Manchester) Good morning, team.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character, screaming).
TATUM: (As Jeffrey Manchester) No, no, no. Don't be scared.
MONDELLO: He relieves them of the cash in the safe and politely ushers them into the restaurant's walk-in refrigerator.
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TATUM: (As Jeffrey Manchester) Duane, get your coat.
TONY REVOLORI: (As Duane) I don't have one.
TATUM: (As Jeffrey Manchester) Are you serious?
MONDELLO: He takes off his own coat...
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TATUM: (As Jeffrey Manchester) Here.
MONDELLO: ...Then closes the refrigerator door and calls the cops, so he knows they'll be let out quickly. Nice guy, they all say to reporters afterwards, as did real-life staffers at dozens of McDonald's...
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Police believe the Roofman may still be in the area.
MONDELLO: ...Before the real Roofman was finally captured. Jeffrey Manchester was sentenced to 45 years in prison, which seems sufficiently out of scale with his crimes that movie audiences won't have much trouble rooting for Tatum's Roofman to escape...
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) A manhunt tonight for an escaped prisoner.
MONDELLO: ...And then to evade capture, as the real Manchester did, by hiding inside a massive display at a Toys "R" Us store and inventing an alias that covers him when he steps out into the world.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) I understand you work for the government.
TATUM: (As Jeffrey Manchester) That's a little classified, so...
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: (As character) I never knew we had an intelligence unit here in Charlotte.
TATUM: (As Jeffrey Manchester) Oh, are you law enforcement?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: (As character) Yes. I am.
TATUM: (As Jeffrey Manchester) Wow. That's amazing. Ahh.
MONDELLO: It helps that Channing Tatum is among the most ingratiating actors in Hollywood. It's hard to imagine this story landing without him. It also helps that a Toys "R" Us employee, who's sweetly played by Kirsten Dunst, takes a shine to him. How could she not when her pastor's wife approaches her at the church's Christmas toy drive?
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #6: (As pastor's wife) I would like to introduce you to someone who made a generous toy donation.
KIRSTEN DUNST: (As Leigh Wainscott) That's so kind of you.
MONDELLO: The donation was stolen from Toys "R" Us, though Leigh doesn't know that, and she's soon smitten.
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DUNST: (As Leigh Wainscott) Would you like to go out with me?
TATUM: (As Jeffrey Manchester) Yes, I would - I would very much - really, very much like to go out on a date with you.
MONDELLO: In a dumber movie, she'd be Maid Marian to his Robin Hood, but things aren't that simple in real life. And with filmmaker Derek Cianfrance casting some of the folks who figured in the actual early 2000s crime spree, real life increasingly asserts itself here. Tatum is so winning that it's often hard to register the hurt the character is causing. It's easy to imagine a darker film, a thriller about a pathological liar and thief disrupting a lot of lives. That's more or less what happened, but that movie wouldn't make audiences smile. "Roofman" mostly does.
I'm Bob Mondello.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RUNNIN' DOWN A DREAM")
TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS: (Vocalizing). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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