Amanda Peet: What happened?

I first noticed Amanda Peet in 'Changing Lanes'. Her brief restaurant scene with Ben Affleck-after disclosing that she long knew about the Ben Affleck character's infidelities was touted as Oscar-worthy. And I agreed. I still recall the screen play or.. some of it ''... at my father's level of the game. I could have married a professor of middle english if he had tenure at Princeton. But I married you. A wallstreet lawyer...'' That alone would have made history for the shortest skit to be judged as worthy of an Oscar. I immediately liked Amanda Peet and thought she was headed for critically-acclaimed success. She was a promising actress. Then last week, I went to Cineplex-Oasis Mall Kampala after a long-day to catch some escape to catch 'Identity Thief'. It turns out, Amanda Peet was playing house wife in some nondescript role. And I began to ask myself, what happened to Amanda Peet. The Amanda Peet of 'Changing Lanes'? The one who chewed up a scene in a short skit tipped for an unprecedented Oscar? I began to notice it may not go too well for her, in career terms, when the movie she did with Jack Nicholson followed. It turns out career choices are every bit as important as grinding out a truly fine performance. Now I am not writing this to belittle Amanda Peet. In fact, she had me at hullo in 'Changing Lanes'. She is clearly made for some truly authentically deep stuff and she can still redeem her career. I am not naive about studio politics and all the intricacies of who is cast in which role to satisfy which demographic and the like. Even in this complex, muddled, 'man eat man' world, Amanda Peet can still curve out a role worth of her exceptional talents.