Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 26, 1994                   TAG: 9403260076
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: B-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`THE PAPER' IS A FUNNY EDITION

There are a lot of reasons to see the film - it's intelligent, fast-paced, filled with good characters in interesting situations - but Michael Keaton's winning peformance is the key. In the right role, he's one of those actors that audiences enjoy spending time with. Even those who could not care less about the newspaper business will be won over.

Those who do care about newspapers will find even more to like. At heart, the film is about the three issues that are central to most papers: profitability, reliable air conditioning and employee parking.

This is the story of 24 hectic hours in the life of a New York City tabloid. It begins at 7 a.m. with Henry Hackett (Keaton) asleep in yesterday's clothes. That's not what his wife Marty (Marisa Tomei) wants to see. Henry has an interview with the prestigious Sentinal where it's likely that he'll be offered a job. If he took it, he'd be able to spend more time with her and their child who's due any time now, and she might consider going back to work again as a reporter.

But Henry thrives on the excitement he finds as metro editor of The Sun. There's a hot story about two black kids who may have been involved in a racially motivated murder, but everything's not kosher funny about their arrest. Even the cops aren't comfortable with it. And columnist Dan McDougal (Randy Quaid) is in the middle of a campaign against the city government. People are mad at him, so he's taken to sleeping in Henry's office and carrying a pistol.

Editor Bernie White (Robert Duvall) is worried about his prostate (with reason) while he keeps Henry and managing editor Alicia Clark (Glenn Close) from going for each other's throats. She's doing everything she can to see that the paper makes money (though she has trouble managing her own). Henry is more than willing to sacrifice anything, including profits and his family, to get the story right and to be first with it.

Writers Dave and Stephen Koepp set up all of those conflicts in the first 15 minutes and spend the next hour and a half sorting them out in frantic fashion. Director Ron Howard juggles multiple characters and plotlines without a single slip. All right, perhaps he goes too far in the last reel when several dramatic climaxes pile upon each other. But that's quibbling.

The story moves so quickly, and it's told with such a sure hand that it's pointless to be too critical. In many ways, the film is a deliberate throwback to an older style of moviemaking where the emphasis is on a strong plot growing from fully developed characters caught in significant moments of decision. At the same time, though, "The Paper" is thoroughly contemporary, told with the technical brilliance that makes Hollywood movies so entertaining.

Yes, the year is still young, but "The Paper" is one of the best of 1994.

The Paper *** 1/2

A Universal release playing at the Tanglewood Mall. 112 min. Rated R for strong language, some violence.