Why did Kim's career go downhill after her Oscar win?

I'll go with the last two, I don't think it has to do with age.

Y'know, I could eat a peach for hours

I don't think it's fair to attribute her worth as an actress just down to playing a sex symbol. I'm sure she endeavoured to play a variety of roles, but Hollywood neglects actresses once they get older.

GoonGirl for Hire

For the sake of the argument, I’m going to do a little run down/summary of what people on IMDb felt of Kim’s post-“LA Confidential” work:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0163983/board/flat/9619335?d=14604441#14604441

Personally, I thought Bless the Child was awful. Truly truly awful. Kim Basinger’s acting was so terrible, it was as if she was lifted from a bad ’70s action movie. I didn’t think any of the characters were that well-developed, and the filmmakers seemed to focus a lot of their attention on big explosions and action instead of plot.

A few months after seeing this in the theaters, I read the book by Cathy Cash Spellman, which is the basis for this movie. At that point, my view on this movie took on a whole new dimension. The book is completely different, well-written, gripping, and a heck of a lot more believable than the film. Relationships between characters are completely different: Maggie is Cody’s grandmother in the book, for example, not her aunt, and there’s a lot more development of the priest’s character in the novel; he’s not just some wheelchair-bound theologian who is used entirely for exposition.

If you actually liked this movie, read the book.

“Seriously, if God and Christianity are nothing more than fairy-tales to you, than surely you could watch BTC with the same attitude you would toward Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter?”

I can’t resist this. Dude, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter are fairy tales; in order to watch Bless the Child with the same attitude as watching those movies, we’d have to think of it all as a fairy tale, or at the very least a complex myth.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0377057/board/thread/40910693?d=40910693#40910693

I always say: even when the script is weak, the director awful and the movie is going to sink, there’s always Kim Basinger to save the day. When the movie is good (e.g. LA Confidential), she’s wonderful, when it’s bad (e. g. this one), she makes it watchable. She’s a very special lady.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337921/board/flat/166755318?d=166755318#166755318

Her performance was actually laughable. Me and a friend watched it and thought “How has she won an Oscar!?” She’s very dramatic in this film and not in a good way!!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337921/board/flat/107804450?d=107804450#107804450

My god she was terrible! Why did she ever win an Oscar? I have no idea. She was so ridiculously over dramatic in this i didn’t care at all about her. I just wanted the crooked cops to get nailed. Her and her family? Whatever, didn’t care at all, and in fact i think i was hoping Statham would just shoot her already so i don’t have to hear those awful whimpers and stuttering of her ridiculous melodrama. Aside from her…i did enjoy the movie. pretty typical thriller, nothing original Whatsoever, but it is what it is. And for some reason i like Chris Evans. He’s not a great actor…yet…i think he’s got potential…but for some reason i enjoy his characters and think he’s pulls them off quite well enough. William H. Macy was good as usual, and Statham as always was fantastic. Weird seeing him as a bad guy, but of course most of his characters aren’t what you would call upstanding citizens so I don’t think this was a stretch for him at all, as he played it very well. Anyway…enough rambling…decent usage of an hour and 25 minutes if you have nothing else to do…and Kim Basinger sucks.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0404163/board/thread/176400616?d=176400616#176400616

Kim Basinger trembles and shiver like she has Parkinson’s. That’s her idea of acting. That’s all she does for no apparent reason. I like her a lot, but lately, most of her work has come down to this, “While She Was Out”, “Even Money”, “Cellular”……..

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0760177/board/thread/53500745?d=53500745#53500745

Now I know it was a Lifetime movie, so I wasn’t expecting much, but COME ON! This was just horrible! Boring, not necessarily confusing, but we really didn’t even know what the movie or the movie title was about until the end. Which is still kind of weak. The place where it was filmed was beautiful, that was about it. And Kim, poor Kim, that hairdo and your skirts? puke What has your career come to honey? You must have needed the money! I kinda want to read the book just to see if Lifetime could really mess it up THAT BAD!!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1068641/board/flat/133416601?d=133416601#133416601

I can’t believe it
Kim Basinger still gets a job?
how is that possible?
she cannot act
she destroys the whole movie
I saw it today and I was thinking what kind of individual likes this stuff?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887971/board/thread/177558272?d=177558272#177558272

Kim Basinger is one of the most beautiful women ever, and a very good actress.

It’s really sad there’s so few good roles out there for women over about age 40…(?) (or I wonder what the turning point is these days?)…

She has to be one of the actresses near the top of the list for her age range, and she’s still stuck producing limp cr@p like this?

She’s always had a very gentle, appealing presence. I feel sorry for her!

EDIT: Why is she not featured on the audio commentary? At least hearing her talk about the production would be rewarding, even though the film’s not very good. The director and producer of this thing don’t have much that’s interesting or creative to say. I turned it off after a few minutes

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887971/board/thread/152367325?d=152465589#152465589

I think her last good role was The Door in the Floor. But how many 55+ year old women get starring vehicles for them anymore in Hollywood. I think Kim is just taking the best of the worst roles possible for at this point.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0865554/board/flat/145828071?d=145828071#145828071

Kim Basinger is too old for Austin Nichols, Gross! Her face is like a slate of plastic. She cannot move her eyebrows and her jowl is sagging.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1661382/board/flat/223799808?d=224086272#224086272

I saw the movie today & she did look incredible. She didn’t have that overly-stretched out face with the hanging, wrinkly neck which is a tell-tale sign of one’s actual age. I know she is an incredibly shy person and she did seem a little nervous in her opening scenes but settled in nicely.

Also—I see her daughter Ireland played the “young” Sally character—I don’t remember seeing the young Sally??!! I didn’t fall asleep either, LOL.

She turned down roles in American Beauty and The Princess Diaries. They were released in years where she had nothing coming out (1999 and 2001).