The Paper

Henry Hackett (Michael Keaton) has a grueling job as an editor at The New York Sun (my guess being it's supposed to be a ficitional verison of The New York Post judging by such front page headlines as "No Parking Except For Me" and "Gotcha") that usually keeps him from his wife nine months pregnant wife Martha (Marisa Tomei) 24/7, so she's pressuring him to get a cushier job at The New York Sentinal (fictional version of The New York Times based on their mantra of "We Cover The World.") Henry of course doesn't want to be out of the action that makes him down Cokes and Tums all day, and finds himself subconsciously sabatoging the interview in the pursuit of finding out the truth behind a grizzly murder and exonerate the two boys arrested for the murder whom he knows in his gut are innocent. The movie takes place during these twenty four hours; from battling with bosses, to fights, to shootings to a father trying to make ammends with his daughter he neglected; this movie shows a day in the life of five people as they try to find the truth behind the murder and the truth about their lifes. Because your whole world can change in twenty-four hours.


Sum less than the (good) parts   November 30, 2001
Matthew Spady (New York, NY)
13 out of 17 found this review helpful

Odd film, this. The cast is first-rate and the individual performances good, at times excellent (Close, Duvall, Tomei); the main theme of the story is interesting, as are the sub-plots; Ron Howard's direction is of the high quality audiences would expect; and the settings are authentically New York, appropriate for a "newspaper" flick. So, why doesn't it all work any better than it does?

One reason is that the individual scenes have greater dramatic impact than the complete film does. At times, the scenes appear to have been taken from different films and pasted together into this one.

Robert Duvall's attempts to reestablish contact with his estranged daughter - an angry woman if ever there was one - are both touching and unsettling. The restaurant scene with Michael Keaton and Marisa Tomei presents a detailed, albeit quick, portrait of their complex relationship, although Keaton's out-of-body experience seemed out-of-keeping with the overall tone of the film. The newspaper editorial staff meeting provides opportunity for several of the supporting characters to distinguish themselves. Tomei's solo screen time is excellent and the Keaton/Close knock-down, drag-out fight on the catwalk by the presses is genuinely frightening.

But, the drama in these scenes does not carry over to the film as a whole. Since each of these story elements receives almost equal attention, the main thread of the story - whether or not the paper will effect the fate of the accused man - does not take center stage. With the film's focus shifted to the struggles among the people who think they hold the accused's fate in their hands, the audience does not have an opportunity to empathize with the accused himself.

In the theatre, this lack of empathy can make the whole venture fall flat. Fortunately, with the DVD format, one can re-watch his favorite scenes without investing time repeating the entire film. In this film, the individual performances are sufficiently powerful to warrant that approach.


Good movie, Bad DVD...   January 15, 2004
Cubist (United States)
14 out of 19 found this review helpful

Ron Howard isn't the most dynamic of directors -- his style is pretty vanilla and he hasn't picked the greatest projects in the world (i.e. Ransom) but he was right on the money with The Paper. While he tends to cram a little too much into one day -- nobody has that exciting a day -- you have to give him a bit of artistic license -- it is a movie after all.

Michael Keaton is well-cast as the big city paper editor with too much on his plate. He can do the manic side of his character (see, well, any movie he's ever done) and he's also up for the serious stuff too. Obviously, he must enjoy playing a journalist as he did a great job as one in Live From Baghdad as well.

The cast is what makes this film work so well. Aside from Keaton, the other real stand-out is Randy Quaid as a fellow reporter and friend. For years now, Quaid as been typecast in dumb guy roles. It so refreshing to see him actually play an intelligent, street savvy reporter in this film. He gets all the great lines and steals all the scenes he's in. The film really kicks into gear when he and Keaton team-up to blow the lid off of a high profile story. I'd love to see these guys do another film together.

While the film does get a tad on the preachy, idealistic side, it still is a very entertaining look at working on a major newspaper in New York City. It's a shame that the DVD is such a letdown. No extras and pan and scanned. Ugh. However, Opie seems to be revisiting his films on DVD with new special editions (i.e. Splash, Ransom). Hopefully, this one will get the deluxe treatment.


Great Movie but...   September 2, 2009
J. Garaguso (New Jersey)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

I'm not commentng on the movie. It's a great flick. Keaton is awesome, probably one of his better performances. Quaid, Duvall, Close, Robards and Tomei are all terrific as well, as is Howard's direction. My problem is with Amazon's description. They list it as being available in Widescreen format. It's not. It's the same version you can buy at Wal Mart for $5.00. I bought it under this pretense and not only did I get the same full screen version I already had, I had to pay shipping to return it.