pacificheights

Oh, the roommate who wouldn’t leave. Sounds like my entire college experience. The only
difference being that my roommate didn’t attempt to kill me. Although, now that I think about it, I
think a few roommates wanted me dead in college, though I’ll never really know why…But I digress.

Matthew Modine and Melanie Griffith move into this great house in the heart of San Francisco.
They want to start a home and a family and they decide to also become renters so that they can
pay off the house quickly. The charming Michael Keaton shows up and pushes a deal through on
the apartment downstairs, only to start screwing up their lives from the first few days. Loud music
all the time runs off their other tenants and soon Keaton is the only one left and he’s destroying his
own room deliberately as well as their lives.

This is one of those movies that in the broad scope will be remembered as an above average early
1990s thriller. In a tighter perspective, it will also be remembered as one of Michael Keaton’s best
roles. Forget “Mr. Mom” and “Batman,” because here is where Keaton shows his darkest side. He
does all of it with his eyes and his subtle expressions. He is charming and yet, sinister and
dangerous. The man knows what he wants and he will ruthlessly take it by force, using loopholes in
the law to render his victims helpless. In point of fact, "Pacific Heights" is actually a tight and
exciting movie in the grand tradition of Alfred Hitchcock.

This is that movie, the one I can’t give away to anyone who hasn’t seen it. I will say that there is a
detractor and that is Griffith, who has never been able, in my opinion, to act with any authenticity. I
don’t understand her appeal and I dislike her line deliveries. They all feel over-read and over-
rehearsed. She might believe the lines in her head, but she can’t express it in her voice. And what
about Modine? Well, he's there. He showed up on the set everyday and that's important and his
acting is just fine. He has the thankless victimized straight man role. He's not the cool villain nor
the attractive lady. He has to play the do-right role, and I always respect that because it's in many
ways the hardest thing to do in any story.

Needless to say, while the film takes a minor hit in the heroine department, Keaton and Modine’s
visceral hatred for one another both make up for the loss. “Pacific Heights” is a great thriller from
that beautiful transition period between the 1980s and the 1990s that is mostly excellent and
always memorable.