There are not too many solid Newspaper stories which ever make it to the silver Screen. Occasionally one does comes along and if it's message is important with respect towards the audience, it deserves attention. Such a movie is, " The Paper ". The star of the movie is Michael Keaton who plays Henry Hackett a city editor who's boss is Bernie White played by noted actor Robert Duvall. Jason Robards is the Publisher, Graham Keighley. Their newspaper is about to print a story about a local derailment, when a small item arrest in Williamsburg NY, inspires Hackett to risk his position and a promotion with 'The Sentinal'' a prestigious uptown Newspaper. There are a number of hurtles to following up on the Williamsburg murder of three prominent bankers who lost several million dollars of the Mafia's money, primary of which is Alicia Clark (Glenn Close) an envious supervisor who is more interested in saving money than the reputations of two black youths. She explains that without more information on the dead men, additional corroboration or a quote by the tight-lipped police, she is running the subway derailment story. Confident he is right, Hackett pulls out all the stops to beat a four hour deadline, attend his wife's (Marisa Tomei) social life, protect his top reporter (Randy Quaid) from a gun-toting parking official (Jason Alexander) and file the story by press time. The movie possess all the exciting impetus of a modern front page story including the daily problems confronting the staff and the personal lives of all concern. The film is powerful in it's direction and will in time be seen as a Journalistic Classic. Easilly recommended for all. ****

It's 24 hours in the tabloid New York Sun. Metro editor Henry Hackett (Michael Keaton) is angry that he lost the headlines war in the previous day. His very pregnant wife Martha (Marisa Tomei) is a reporter on leave. She wants him to take a higher pay, less work job with the classier New York Sentinel. Alicia Clark (Glenn Close) is his nemesis and managing editor. Bernie White (Robert Duvall) is their editor-in-chief and mentor struggling family and health issues. Owner Graham Keighley (Jason Robards) faces financial troubles. Columnist Michael McDougal (Randy Quaid) has been ridiculing parking official Sandusky (Jason Alexander). Henry pushes a story about two black kids killing two white businessmen to beat the other papers. Greenhorn photographer Robin is sent to film the perp-walk.

This is a fast-talking, fun take on the NYC tabloid newspaper world by director Ron Howard. It has some fun touches of reality but it's more like hyper-reality. It's in the vein of "His Girl Friday". The dialog is snappy and irreverent newspaper banter. It's a bunch of great actors working with fun material.

"The Paper" does seem slightly more serious and less sentimental than most of Ron Howard's movies. Focusing on an overworked reporter (Michael Keaton) getting torn between a big story and his wife (Marisa Tomei),it's worth seeing. I wonder how many movies there can be about someone getting between his family and his job, but combining that with something about the media - specifically a newspaper - makes it a little bit more interesting. In my opinion, the most interesting character was Glenn Close's incarnation of the bitchy executive (there always has to be one of those, doesn't there?) preferring to stick with policy rather than investigate the story seriously; you're not sure whether she makes your skin crawl or whether she's kinda likable.

So, this isn't the greatest movie ever - certainly not the best movie focusing on the media - but worth seeing as a look into situations slowly but surely spinning out of control. Also starring Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid, Jason Alexander and Clint Howard.