Pacific Heights (film)

Pacific Heights
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Schlesinger
Produced by	Scott Rudin William Sackheim
Written by	Daniel Pyne
Starring	Melanie Griffith Matthew Modine Michael Keaton Laurie Metcalf Mako Carl Lumbly Dorian Harewood
Music by	Hans Zimmer
Cinematography	Amir M. Mokri
Editing by	Steven Ramirez Mark Warner
Studio	Morgan Creek Productions
Distributed by	20th Century Fox (theatrical) Warner Bros. (DVD)
Release date(s)	September 28, 1990
Running time	102 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	$18 million
Box office	$44,926,706

Pacific Heights is a 1990 thriller film directed by John Schlesinger and starring Melanie Griffith, Matthew Modine, and Michael Keaton. Griffith's real-life mother Tippi Hedren has a cameo as a rich older woman who is conned by Keaton's character. The original music score was composed by Hans Zimmer. The film's tagline is: "It seemed like the perfect house. He seemed like the perfect tenant. Until they asked him to leave."

Plot summary

Carter Hayes (Michael Keaton), who is in bed with a woman (Beverly D'Angelo), is suddenly attacked by hired thugs who tell him to leave town or face worse consequences.

An unmarried couple, Patty Palmer (Melanie Griffith) and Drake Goodman (Matthew Modine) buy a $750,000-plus polychrome house in the exclusive San Francisco neighborhood of Pacific Heights, which they renovate and plan to rent the two apartments on the first floor to cover most of the monthly mortgage.

Hayes has all the trappings of a good tenant. In reality, he is a con artist who does not pay either the rent or the security deposit, and changes the locks on all the doors.

In short order, Hayes causes the couple all sorts of trouble through scare tactics, verbal baiting and turning his own apartment into a dark, cockroach-infested den. It is all part of an elaborate scheme to use California tenant laws against the owners and obtain the property cheaply.

The constant stress causes Patty to have a miscarriage. Drake loses his temper and violently assaults Hayes, who takes out a restraining order against him. Drake returns to the house in violation of the order and is shot by Hayes, who further defends his position as the wronged man by planting a weapon in Drake's hands.

Hayes then vanishes almost without a trace, stealing Drake's identity. Patty becomes determined to have revenge. She searches what remains of the apartment and is able to track down Hayes and his new con game in Los Angeles that involves a wealthy widow (Tippi Hedren). She also meets the woman from the opening, who reveals to her that Carter (if that is his name) has been playing the con game with property for a long time.

Patty poses as Carter's wife in order to get into his hotel room. She charges expensive room service on his credit cards and then has Drake call in to have them declared stolen. Carter is arrested. He is able to charm his way out of jail and returns to the Pacific Heights apartment to try and kill Drake and Patty, but they manage to push him onto a large re-bar sticking out of the floor, which is in the process of being repaired.

In the conclusion, Drake and Patty have renovated the house again and show it off to prospective customers with the intent of selling it.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics and has a 43% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes aggregator site, with 10 out of 23 critics giving the film a positive review. Janet Maslin of the New York Times characterized the film as "perhaps the first eviction thriller," writing that it "taps into a previously unexplored subject, the source of so much excitement and so many conversational gambits within young urban professional circles. It is, of course, real estate." Roger Ebert called the film "a horror film for yuppies", and said the script relied on too many horror clichés, such as the dark basement or murder of a family pet. Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly agreed, writing, "the actors are stranded with a perfunctory, deadwood script that's all concept and no follow-through." And Desson Howe of the Washington Post summed up the film this way: "This is a yuppie conceit; this is not interesting to human beings."

However, Chris Hicks of the Salt Lake City Deseret News was among the critics who praised the acting, especially of Keaton, and found enjoyment in having Patty getting her revenge on a man who had manipulated the law to wreck her dreams and hurt the man she loved. In contrast, the Washington Post's Howe criticized Modine's acting, remarking that as he "... goes from clean cut boyfriend to arrested, frothing debtor in screen minutes, loses his cool so easily and maniacally, you wonder if he'll turn out to be the real psycho."

This film was listed as No. 94 on Bravo's The 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

Location

The story location of the film Pacific Heights (1990) is set in Pacific Heights area of San Francisco. However, the true filmed location of the focal house in the film, is located on Potrero Hill in San Francisco, specifically at the corner of 19th and Texas Street.

DVD

The DVD edition of the film was released in 1999 by Warner Home Video and includes only a trailer for the film.

Cast

Actor	Role
Melanie Griffith	Patty Palmer
Matthew Modine	Drake Goodman
Michael Keaton	Carter Hayes
Laurie Metcalf	Stephanie MacDonald
Mako	Toshio Watanabe
Nobu McCarthy	Mira Watanabe
Dorian Harewood	Dennis Reed
Tippi Hedren	Florence Peters
Beverly D'Angelo (uncredited)	Ann Miller
Carl Lumbly	Lou Baker
Sheila McCarthy	Liz Hamilton
Luca Bercovici	Greg
Jerry Hardin	Bennett Fidlow
Dan Hedaya	Loan Officer
Guy Boyd	Warning Cop
Nicholas Pryor	Hotel Manager
Tracey Walter	Exterminator
James Staley	District Attorney
F. William Parker	Judge
O-Lan Jones	Hotel Maid
Miriam Margolyes	Realtor
J.P. Bumstead	1st Deputy Sheriff
Hal Landon Jr.	2nd Deputy Sheriff
D.W. Moffett	Bill
Barbara Tyson	Amy

External links

• Pacific Heights at the Internet Movie Database
• Pacific Heights at AllRovi
• Pacific Heights at Rotten Tomatoes
• Pacific Heights at Box Office Mojo