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■JjJortlanh (Observer
Exactly Right
continued
from page 9
friend, Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams).
She's his soulmate, a former stripper
who appreciates Irving's genius and adds
her own astute spin. The two sell stolen
and forged art and nonexistent loans to
desperate folks, with Sydney posing as
Edith Greensley, an Englishwoman with
banking connections and distractingly
low necklines.
But when the two are busted by an
ambitious loose cannon, FBI agent Richie
DiM aso (Bradley Cooper), he forces
them into a more elaborate scheme to
snag prominent targets like the mayor of
Camden and several congressmen. The
scheme depends on Irving's expertise,
but violates all of his methods for setting
up a good con.
The film opens with Irving assembling
his elaborate comb-over, a hilarious and
symbolic demonstration of the care in
volved in Irving's method. Indeed, hair
and clothes are especially vivid through
out the film, a bonus that comes with the
story's setting in the garish, hair-obsessed
1970s. Sydney's long, flowing ginger hair
is part of a distractingly luscious persona
that dazzles people into parting with their
cash. DiMaso, overestimating his smarts
as much as his charm, wears his in
home-permed curls as tightly-wound as
his persona. And Irving's loose-cannon
wife, Roslyn (Jennifer Lawrence), works
her chaotic sex appeal with a blond
bouffant as unruly as she is.
These are just a few of the characters
who make up the conflagration that Irv
ing must contain. Bradley Cooper ap
plies just the right amount of manic en
ergy to DiMaso, who keeps pushing the
deal bigger and bigger, driven by am bi
tion and greed.
January I, 2014
Jennifer Lawrence very nearly steals
the film as Roslyn; as Irving recognizes,
she is a master manipulator and he is her
"mark." She has a habit of setting things
on fire (both literally and figuratively)
and then deflecting blame on a dime so
that she is actually the hero.
Amy Adams manages, in dresses cut
down to her navel, to convey a woman of
subtlety; she is working all her assets to
rise above her circumstances and never
stops strategizing, even when the social
roles available to her don't allow her
many options. A confrontation in the
ladies' room between the two women is
worth the price of admission all on its
own.
A nd there is lots o f other great w ork
here, including from Jerem y R enner
as the C am den m ayor, A lessandro
N ivola as a prosecutor supposedly
m odeled on Rudy G iuliani, R obert
D eN iro as (w hat else?) a m enacing
m obster, and Louis C-K as D iM aso's
long-suffering boss.
But Bale's performance is the heart of
the film. His Irving is a marvel of com
plexity; his expressions convey that he is
always strategizing, calculating odds, and
occasionally despairing of keeping in the
air all the balls that DiMaso has tossed
there and Roslyn has diverted.
A lthough alw ays w orking an angle,
Irving struggles with the im plications
o f h is a c tio n s; he w o rrie s ab o u t
R oslyn's son and about his failures o f
loyalty to Sydney and the m ayor, to
whom he has grow n attached. D irec
tor Russell has made him the m oral
center o f the film , w hich is itself a bit
o f flim -flam that suits the m aterial. H is
m orality is only satisfying if you don't
think about it too hard - w hich som e
how m akes the film very satisfying.
Darleen Ortega is a judge on the
Oregon Court o f Appeals and the
first woman o f color to serve in that
capacity. Her movie review column
O pinionated Judge appears regu
larly in The Portland Observer. You
can f i n d h er m ovie blog at
opinionatedjudge. blogspot. com.
Spinach Fettuccine with Scallops
I f you use sea
scallops and not
bay scallops, cut
them into quarters
before adding
them to the pasta.
Original recipe
makes 4 servings.
Ingredients:
• 1/2 pound dry fettuccine pasta
• 6 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1(10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3/4 pound scallops
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 2 (4.5 ounce) cans sliced mushrooms, drained
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom
soup
• 1 cup white wine
• ground black pepper to taste
Directions:
1. Bring a large pot o f lightly salted water to a boil. Add
pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente;
drain and reserve. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat 1
to 2 tablespoons o f oil and add spinach and salt and
pepper to taste. Saute spinach for 5 to 7 minutes or until
wilted and no longer watery. Remove spinach from
skillet and toss with pasta; transfer and keep warm.
2. In the same skillet, heat 2 more tablespoons of oil and
add scallops and 2 cloves of sliced garlic. Cook scal
lops for 1 to 2 minutes or until they appear opaque. Add
scallops and garlic to fettuccine and spinach mix;
transfer and keep warm.
3. In the same skillet, heat 2 tablespoons o f oil. Add
2 more cloves o f sliced garlic and saute until golden.
Add mushrooms, soup and white wine to skillet. Stir
over medium heat for 8 minutes or until warm. Pour over
fettuccine and spinach and add ground black pepper
to taste; serve.
Healthy Mexican Chicken Bake
A high-protein, low-calorie meal that leaves you
FULL. It s so flavorful. Goes great with cornbread
and/or a side o f refried beans. Makes 4 servings.
Ingredients:
•
•
•
•
•
•
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and ground black pepper to taste
4 ounces shredded Mexican cheese blend
1 cup salsa
Directions:
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1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Heat
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vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Season one side of chicken breasts with half the cumin, half the
garlic powder, salt, and black pepper; arrange chicken breasts with seasoned sides down in the hot oil. Fry until
chicken is lightly browned on the bottom, 4 to 5 minutes.
2. Season the top of each chicken breast with the remaining cumin, remaining garlic powder, salt, and black
pepper, flip chicken and cook until other side is lightly browned, 4 to 5 minutes. If the skillet gets dry, pour in
just enough juice from the salsa to keep it from burning.
3. Transfer chicken breasts to a 9x9-inch baking dish; sprinkle with Mexican cheese blend. Loosen all the drippings
from the skillet with some juice from the salsa and pour on top of chicken breasts. Spoon salsa over cheese layer.
4. Bake chicken breasts until no longer pink in the center and the juices run clear, 20 to 25 minutes. An instant-
read thermometer inserted into the center should read at least 165 degrees F (74 degrees C).