The Paper (DVD)

Ron Howard directs a star-studded cast in this stop-the-presses comedy that brings the fast-paced, cutthroat, frequently hilarious world of newspaper journalism vividly to life.

It’s editorial bedlam during the course of one hectic, twenty-four-hour period at the New York Sun. In order to make the morning edition and scoop the competition, Henry Hackett (Michael Keaton) must race against the clock to expose a major scandal, or two innocent men will go to prison. Thwarting him at every turn is his ambitious managing editor (Glenn Close), who seems more concerned with staying on budget than printing the truth. At the same time, Hackett’s wife (Marisa Tomei) is about to give birth to their first child, and she’s pressuring him to take a cushier, less demanding position with a rival newspaper. Meanwhile facing their own private demons are columnist Dan McDougal (Randy Quaid) and senior editor Bernie White (Robert Duvall). Also featuring Catherine O’Hara, Jason Alexander and Jason Robards in headline-grabbing performances, The Paper is hailed by US Magazine as “One of the most entertaining movies to come out of Hollywood in years.”

Starring: Michael Keaton, Glenn Close, Marisa Tomei, Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid

Reviews:

• “Ron Howard's "The Paper" gets a lot of things right about working on a newspaper, and one of them is how it screws up your personal life… Michael Keaton is just about perfectly cast in the movie as an assistant managing editor who cannot, under any circumstances, let a big story wait until tomorrow. – Roger Ebert rogerebert.com
• “Michael Keaton, at the top of his manic game, plays Henry Hackett, the Sun‘s metro editor. From the moment this caffeine junkie hits the office, you can feel his frenzy. As Henry tells editor-in-chief Bernie White (the superb Robert Duvall), “Every day I’m behind from the minute I get up.” You don’t expect director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer — partners on such benign jokefests as Splash! and Parenthood — to catch the mad-dog anarchy of the newsroom. But they nail it.” – Peter Travers Rolling Stone
• “"The Paper" delivers a refreshingly unsensationalized accounting of how news gets into the paper, and even a micro-moral about journalistic responsibility, as these professionally distanced newsies are confronted with the human impact of their work.” – Joe Brown The Washington Post

Starring: Michael Keaton, Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, Marisa Tomei, Randy Quaid, Jason Robards, Jason Alexander, Spalding Gray, Catherine O'Hara, Lynne Thigpen

Rating: R