THE PAPER
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1994 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Michael Keaton, Glenn Close, Marisa Tomei, Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid. Screenplay: David Koepp and Steven Koepp. Director: Ron Howard.
After establishing himself with gentle mass-market fantasies and taking a break for an overstuffed comedy, this man got the bug to be Taken Seriously as a Director; the results tended to be as notable for their excesses as their successes. Sound like I'm describing Steven Spielberg? Not surprising. Ron Howard's career as a director has often seemed too consciously patterned after Spielberg's (although there are clearly worse models), and has represented much that is best and worst about his much more successful colleague's work. THE PAPER is one of these films. It's a bit too busy and precocious for its own good, but still has enough of a charming throwback quality that I was willing to forgive many of its flaws.
THE PAPER stars Michael Keaton as Henry Hackett, metro editor of a New York tabloid daily called The Sun. In the course of one hot Friday, Henry and his colleagues will face a journalistic moment of truth. Henry has been offered a position at the more respectable New York Sentinel, much to the delight of his very pregnant wife Marty (Marisa Tomei). However, Henry finds himself waffling on the move as he is caught up in the biggest story of his life, an apparently racially-motivated slaying which Henry discovers may be something else entirely. As deadline approaches, Henry pleads with editor Bernie White (Robert Duvall) for time to get his story, while managing editor Alicia Clark (Glenn Close) pushes for a front page which highlights the two black fall guys arrested in the case.
THE PAPER is delivered with an energy that matches the barely controlled chaos of the newsroom, and that energy is nearly enough to sell the film all by itself. The go-go pacing echoes newspaper films of past decades, the same films the current THE HUDSUCKER PROXY parodies. Indeed, while there is a decidedly 90's spin to the proceedings (no film of the 40's would ask if its hero were spending too little time with his wife), THE PAPER still features such standbys as the gruff editor, the wet-behind-the-ears reporter (here a photographer), and an ethical dilemma. There is nothing daringly original about the way THE PAPER serves up these elements, but the setting itself is so lively and the cast generally so engaging that the lack of originality doesn't assault you. Keaton, in his third collaboration with Howard, delivers a solid protagonist even though the role demands little of his considerable talents. Marisa Tomei has some delightful moments as Marty, herself a reporter going through career withdrawals and dealing with her fears that Henry will always be too busy for their baby. Randy Quaid gets the showy role as a paranoid attack columnist, and Catherine O'Hara has a funny cameo as Marty's bitter friend. Less successful are Close and Duvall, but that certainly isn't the fault of the two talented actors.
The weak link in the script by David and Steven Koepp is an unnecessary subplot involving Duvall as the editor dealing with a diagnosis of prostate cancer and trying to reconcile with his estranged daughter. While the intention was clearly to establish a parallel between what Bernie is and what Henry is becoming, Bernie's story is never integrated with Henry's We never see Henry responding to Bernie's situation; for all we know, he never even knows about it. As a result, it seems like we're getting snippets from an entirely different movie. Bernie's story is just filling up minutes.
It's too bad, because a resolution connected to Bernie's family troubles would have been much more effective than the one we get. That resolution includes a bar scene which suffers from extremely sloppy editing leading into not one but two medical crises. It seems like a Ron Howard film isn't complete without someone dying or nearly dying, as though he doesn't trust any conclusion not based on the biggest possible emotion. What had been a taut, energetic film about priorities and the thrill of reporting bogs down seriously in the final fifteen minutes. It's not quite enough to sabotage THE PAPER's strengths completely, but it does show once again that Ron Howard the "serious director" too often equates serious with saccharine.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 headlines: 6.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
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