Classic Movie Review: 'The Paper' Starring Michael Keaton

The Paper (1994)

Directed by Ron Howard

Written by David Koepp, Steven Koepp

Starring Michael Keaton, Marisa Tomei, Randy Quaid, Glen Close, Robert Duvall

Release Date March 18th, 1994

Published April 3rd, 2024

The Paper stars Michael Keaton as Henry Hackett, Metro Editor for a New York City tabloid perpetually on the brink of closing. With a baby on the way, with his reporter wife, Martha (Marisa Tomei), Henry is plotting an exit from the paper. On this day, as we join the story, Henry has an interview with a Wall Street Journal style, internationally respected newspaper. Henry doesn't want the job. He wants the money but he'd much rather stay at his current employer where he can get his hands dirty. Instead of being behind a desk with a fat paycheck, Henry needs the excitement of the metro page.

Making Henry's choice to stay or go at his current gig difficult is his rival, Alicia (Glenn Close). Alicia is a former reporter and editor who is now a bean counter. She makes big decisions based on budgets instead of journalism and Henry resents her for switching sides. Henry doesn't want to end up working under Alicia and her penny pinching, thus another reason he's considering leaving. Holding him in place is his current boss, Bernie (Robert Duvall), a legendary editor and the final word at the paper. As long as Bernie is there, Alicia is mostly neutralized. But how much longer does Bernie have?

These questions roil beneath the surface creating tension while the bigger story begins to unfold. The paper has missed a big story. Last night, a pair of businessmen were gunned down and every other newspaper in town ran with the story. The paper is playing catch up and Henry is determined not to get scooped for a second day in a row. He wants to know the moment an arrest is made so they can get the picture and the story on the front page that night. But first, what if the story is wrong? What if the eventual arrest of two black teenagers for the crime is wrong?

As the deadline for printing the next day's paper approaches, Henry has big questions as to the truth of the story. He needs time to nail down the details but standing in his way is Alicia who refuses to push the deadline. She wants to run a headline stating 'Gotcha' over the picture of the two teens, regardless of whether they are guilty or not. With the budget on the line, she's willing to be wrong for a day if it means they can save money. Henry, meanwhile, seeks the truth and wants to make sure his paper doesn't ruin the lives of two innocent teens.

That's a linear progression of the plot of The Paper. In reality, the story is much more chaotic and suitable to the chaos of a real newsroom. The Paper is filled with colorful details like a columnist played by Randy Quaid who carries a gun and is the star of the paper for his series complaining about New York City Parking. Then there are the various reporters who make Henry's life crazy with their demands about chairs and territories of coverage and other such things. Meanwhile, his best reporter, his own wife, is home, pregnant and desperate to get back into the news mix.

All of the chaos of The Paper plays like an episode of an Aaron Sorkin TV show, a talky, too smart for its own good, sanctimonious, self-satisfied TV drama. It's a lot of high minded rhetoric about heroic newspaper reporters, striving for the truth, in the face of commercial interests that threaten the integrity of journalism. And, much like the work of Aaron Sorkin, The Paper, as directed by Ron Howard, is better suited for television. There are simply too many things happening at once. There are too many characters, too many threads to follow, and the central story needs more room to breathe.

This could happen on a weekly television show. In a movie, the strictures of time and pace require that the many, many, many threads get clipped without a proper resolution. On TV, The Paper would make an outstanding weekly ensemble drama. I could imagine an Emmy winning series version of The Paper chaotically churning out tabloid thrills and fighting the good journalistic fight, amid the colorful characters and backdrop of New York City. Keaton, Close, and Duvall on a television series would have probably cost too much, but it would better serve the story being told.

Sadly, we are talking about a movie and as a movie, The Paper is overstuffed. There are too many things happening at once in The Paper. The film becomes a shapeless, shambling mess. Despite the pro level work from Michael Keaton and Glenn Close, there are simply too many things happening. These include a subplot for Duvall about cancer and a daughter who refuses to speak to him and a character played by Jason Alexander that the movie struggles to make use of as a plot device. There is also a reporter with a back problem and a rookie photographer, and on and on and on it goes.

I wanted so much to look back 30 years later and rediscover The Paper as a hidden gem of the 90s. I wanted so much to watch The Paper and be reminded of what a great director Ron Howard can be when he has good material. It was a bummer to watch the movie careen from one scene to the next haphazardly touching on plots and building to a climax that doesn't earn the applause it demands. If you honestly believe that a New York City tabloid cares more about getting a story right than saving money, you are a lovingly naïve soul. The movie needed to convince us with these characters that this ending was earned but these characters are such broad caricatures that their nobility in the end feels at odds with their witty cynicism.

I realize that The Paper feels like a movie that needs a happy ending but it feels a lot like pandering here. I don't buy it. It doesn't feel realistic and the notion of journalistic ethics beating the bottom line feels unearned. It plays like the ending that tested best with mass audiences rather than the most truthful ending. The ending ruins what little goodwill I had for The Paper by that point. If I was annoyed with the wall to wall chaos of the movie as a whole, the ending rendered the enjoyable parts of the chaos, Keaton and Close, as caricatures in service of a studio mandate rather than a salute to courageous journalists.

The Paper was the subject of a recent episode of the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast spinoff, I Hate Critics 1994. Each week, myself and my co-hosts Gen Z'er M.J, and Gen X'er Amy, watch a movie released 30 years ago that weekend and talk about it. It's a chance to examine how movies and popular culture have changed in just 30 years and it's been fun to watch these 30 year old movies with new eyes. Listen to I Hate Critics 1994 wherever you listen to podcasts.

Find my archive of more than 20 years and more than 2000 movie reviews at SeanattheMovies.blogspot.com. Find my modern review archive on my Vocal Profile linked here. Follow me on Twitter at PodcastSean. Follow the archive blog on Twitter at SeanattheMovies. Listen to me talk about movies on the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast. If you have enjoyed what you have read, you can subscribe to my writing here on Vocal. If you'd like to support my writing, you can do so by making a monthly pledge or by leavin a one-time tip. Thanks!