Griffith not bad

I was surprised by the good performance from Melanie Griffith. She was the teeth of the married couple prayed upon by an equally good and creepy Michael Keaton. He can play both nice and nasty. Modine's character I guess was supposed to be dim, but it wasn't necessary that he be that way.
But---the movie cheated a little. In the first confrontation with the police, Keaton whispers to the cop "I signed a lease". I said to myself, when did that happen? And since Keaton was a scam artist, I guess he knew that he needed to have signed a lease to stay in the apartment--so why did he whisper it to the cop? Why not show the lease? The answer is because there wasn't one--Modine/Griffith were a couple who would insist on getting money before signing a lease. So the movie lied a little. It didn't hurt the story all that much, but I see by all the comments that it caused much discussion. The ones who claim expert knowledge of California landlord/tenant law should quote the statute that says a person can enter an empty apartment, change the locks, not pay the owner any money and be allowed to stay there for months while the courts decide the case.