Channing Tatum has, by now, amassed a dense filmography going back 20 years, and worked with the lofty likes of Quentin Tarantino and Steven Soderbergh. But he is still remembered primarily as the hunky, appealing and a-peeling epicenter and star of the Magic Mike franchise. In these films, he deftly juggled character elements of the morally questionable world of professional stripping (an echo of Tatum’s actual one-time gig in Florida, before movie stardom) and a kindhearted personality beneath the squalor.
In a sense, Tatum’s role as the protagonist in the comedy/drama/kindly crime caper Roofman also represents the juxtaposition of good guy/bad guy duality, but in a more severe way. Here, in a rightfully celebrated performance that gives Tatum the juicy starring platform he deserves, he plays the real-life, friendly criminal Jeffrey Manchester, a veteran who falls into a life of robbery in the absence of other suitable work.
We first meet his character up on the roof, tools in hand, hacking his way inside a McDonald’s, as a way of “going to work” to feed and pamper his family. Once confronting the employees who will give him access to cash on hand, he's the politest bogeyman imaginable, apologetic while dishing out his disservice with a smile.