Tonight's Movie: The Paper (1994)

The sad news of the passing of the great Robert Duvall earlier this week prompted me to pull THE PAPER (1994) off the shelf.

I love a good "newspaper movie" and have been meaning to catch with this one, directed by Ron Howard. Ironically, it turned out that along with Duvall, the movie also features Catherine O'Hara, who passed on at the end of January.

THE PAPER is akin to BABY BOOM (1987) as far as being one of those "so near and yet so far" experiences; 1994 doesn't seem all that long ago, at least to some of us, and yet the world it depicts is almost completely different: Bustling newsrooms with many employees, primitive computers, handwritten notes and columns, no cell phones, and awful-looking TV screens.

At the same time, some things are curiously unchanged despite the film being over 30 years old: The opening minutes feature a joke about Donald Trump. I sputtered with surprised laughter. (But please, no political comments!)

Michael Keaton plays Henry Hackett, an editor of a New York City tabloid, akin to the New York Post.

In the course of 24 hours Henry juggles an offer from a more staid New York Times type of paper along with breaking a big story.

Meanwhile Henry's wife Martha (Marisa Tomei), a reporter on leave from the paper, is in the final weeks of pregnancy and worrying about how much time Henry will have to devote to fatherhood -- a concern stoked by her unhappy friend Susan (O'Hara).

The cast is rounded out by Duvall and Glenn Close as Henry's bosses, Randy Quaid as a columnist, and Jason Robards as the newspaper owner; Quaid is particularly colorful. Lynne Thigpen is also great as Henry's long-suffering secretary and was probably the character I enjoyed observing the most.

It's a fast-moving and entertaining 102 minutes, although I'm compelled to mention right off the top that there was an inordinate amount of cursing in this R-rated film; the language becomes like so much pointless verbal wallpaper after a while.

I find it interesting that films of the '80s and '90s are sometimes much "harder" R's than films I watch today. The language in the R-rated SHELTER (2026), for instance, was much milder than in THE PAPER.

The plot itself was interesting, as Henry -- with more than a little help from his very pregnant wife -- figures out the real story behind a double murder.

The questions about whether Henry will be able to leave the office enough to pay attention to his family have been done before -- and indeed, Duvall's character in THE PAPER provides a cautionary tale -- but Keaton manages to make Henry likeable despite his flaws. He's well-matched by Tomei as his feisty wife.

Duvall has a couple moving moments trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter (Jill Hennessy) but is rather underused. (Jokes about his prostate land flat.) Close is essentially the villain of the piece, poorly managing her personal life, on multiple levels, while struggling to bring economic discipline to the paper.

Some moments made me laugh out loud, though at other points it gets a bit too manic for my taste, such as in the ridiculously chaotic scene where Henry and Alicia (Close) fight over whether to stop the presses. On the whole it was a solid watch which I enjoyed.

A few members of director Howard's family show up in this: His father Rance plays Alicia's doctor, his brother Clint is a newspaper staffer, and his wife Cheryl is a bartender.

The cast is rounded out by Spalding Gray, and Jason Alexander. Classic movie fans will recognize William Prince (PILLOW TO POST) as Martha's father.

The movie was written by David and Stephen Koepp and filmed by John Seale.

I watched the movie on DVD. It's also available on Blu-ray and VHS.

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