Ron Howard's The Paper is an astute and resoundingly comedic look at a chaotic 24 hours in the life of a paper, its workers and beyond. This satyrical and often at times funny look at the nature of the beast, news media at its most honest. Aside from the star studded, talented Hollywood cast The Paper examines the pressures, joys and provides a cautionary tale in the vein of editorv Bernie White (Robert Duvall).
The idea of a workahaulic working at a paper is not old news. In spite of all the Hollywood renderings of editors, the most flippant and extravagent rendering in The Devil Wears Prada's Miranda Priestly, the editor of fake, "Runway" magazine, modeled after Anna Wintour the ruthless Editor-In-Chief of Vogue, White comes across as an every man who has just let the hustle and bustle of the news industry lead him on for too long.
Michael Keaton, a veteran actor and absolute master of his craft plays the earnest, hardworking metro editor, Henry Hackett who could be mistaken for a grown up version of the Beave. His earnest wife played by Oscar winner Marissa Tomei, lies in wait for cuts imposed by the paper's owner and Glen Close's character being unpopular in her cost cutting measures.
The true ethical dilemas come with the story that is depicted in the film: regarding the arrest of two black males in conjunction with a murder. The information from the NYPD that Henry becomes privy to becomes the center of an ethical firestorm. He almost, no he does cross the line becoming obsessed with the story and not feeling any sort of regard to those who lie in his wake, his persuit of the truth. He actually ends up trying to get the rest of the Sun staff to waste their time investigating the story and ends up creating an entire other issue, by losing his job. It just goes to show you that getting swallowed whole by a story can sabatoge your career, no matter how much good you think you're doing, Once you step over the ethical line, you step over. There's no getting back.
He ends up blowing his job offer at a neighboring paper because he is so obsessed with getting to the bottom of the murders. An ethical idea that started as a search for truth ended up going on and on as a wild goose chase. Or so we all thought. The conspiracy unravelled by Keaton's character ends up steming much higher up on the food chain. His wife, who is pregnant ends up giving birth to a healthy baby boy, and the two boys wrongfully charged get released due to his findings. This truly closed out a wild film with a wild time constraint similar to news.
The idea that we as journalists cannot always find the truth is bucked in this film. Howard's techniques coupled with the honest and truthful portrayals of these reporters done by the cast created a really enjoyable look at a news day. Honestly, I think that this may be one of the more realistic portrayals of journalism, and integrity coupled with ethics that i've seen on film. Ethics are not always present in portrayals of journalism on film. It either is sensationalized or ignored and this film is a nice balence of both. Entertaining and truthful. A great example of what it would be like to stumble on the scoop of a lifetime.
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