THE PAPER
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1994 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Ron Howard's look at the turbulent life
on a struggling middle-brow newspaper makes some pointed
observations about the newspaper business but spoils it all
trying to tie too many loose ends in too silly a final act.
Rating: low +1 (-4 to +4)
Ron Howard's newest film about working-class heroes is a look at what goes on in and out of an incredibly chaotic newsroom. Just as he previously did with firefighters in BACKDRAFT, he is now showing how a good newspaper staff, even on a sleezy-looking tabloid, can make all the difference for a city like New York. It is a story that has been done several times, though usually based on the play "The Front Page" by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. THE PAPER is not obviously based on that play, but the fast- paced style, newsroom pandemonium, comic touches, reporter looking to get out of the job, and even the basic plot of the news scoop that could prevent an injustice leave little doubt where David and Stephan Koepp probably got much of their inspiration.
The film covers 24 hours and 10 seconds in the life of wise-cracking tabloid editor/reporter Henry Hackett (played by Michael Keaton). Even in Hackett's hectic life, this is a particularly frenetic day. His very pregnant wife (played by Marisa Tomei) is an ex-reporter with numerous nightmares of impending empty and prosaic future. Martha Hackett is pushing her husband to take a better-paying and more dependable job. Henry has been offered the job at the New York Times (pronounced "Sentinel") where he will be a soulless, neat professional instead of the wild seat-of-the-pants reporter he is used to being. The Sentinel is the kind of paper where you worry less about scoops and more about being "comprehensive." Complicating matters is a local government functionary has a vendetta against McDougal, a brilliant and grungy co-reporter played by Randy Quaid. Throw into the mix Bernie White (Robert Duvall) a slightly obnoxious chief editor with family problems, prostate cancer, and apparently smoking-related illnesses. All the subplots tie themselves up in ways ranging from unsurprising to highly predictable, even if along the way they take detours through total absurdity.
The pacing of the story is frenetic though at the same time often informative, if somewhat cynical. The meetings to decide how much to emphasize the various breaking stories are absolute gems. One irritation I had watching the film was I kept getting carbonation bubbles up my nose. Ron Howard kept rubbing it in Coca-Cola and its subsidiary products. Calling these product "placements" seems too gentle. This was a product barrage. Howard may have been making up for product placement opportunities missed when he made FAR AND AWAY.
It would be nice to say that Keaton brought some sort of deep resonance to his role. One sort of expects that, but the character of Hackett really does not need or give opportunity for good acting. Hackett is an inconsiderate wiseguy who loves only his job and his wife, in pretty much that order. That doesn't give Keaton much latitude to act. Marginally more room is given to Duvall as Bernie White. Duvall gives him a few rough Jewish characteristics, but this will not be a well-remembered role for him. Glenn Close is bullish and officious. Hers is certainly one of the more interesting characters but her role in a disastrously miscalculated scene toward the end. Marisa Tomei has more drama than she has had in previous roles but doers not carry it well.
THE PAPER has many good moments but overall could have been a much better movie. I give it a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
[Note: the play "The Front Page" referred to above has been filmed four times: THE FRONT PAGE (1931), HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940), THE FRONT PAGE (1974), and SWITCHING CHANNELS (1988).]
Mark R. Leeper
att!mtgzfs3!leeper
leeper@mtgzfs3.att.com
.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews