Patty and Drake want their downstairs tenant to pay the rent. He won't. They want him to leave. He won't. And the tenant, a sociopathic scam artist, has made sure he has the law on his side.
"Check All References" may be a landlord credo, and in the case of this cat-and-mouse thriller, the references are impeccable. Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine play the over-mortgaged couple whose hope of keeping their renovated Victorian dream home depends on leasing the downstairs. Michael Keaton is Carter Hayes, a frighteningly dangerous nightmare who's out to claim the house for himself. And John Schlesinger directs, lifting Pacific Heights to unsettling heights of palpable suspense.
