Can one-time Oscar winners make a comeback with new fall movies?

You may as well call it the Cuba Gooding Jr. Syndrome. An actor wins an Oscar for a performance of skill and charm, and then ... what happens? "Daddy Day Camp," that's what.

Gooding, who won his Academy Award in 1997 for "Jerry Maguire," is perhaps the most extreme example; his post-Oscar career is littered with lame comedies, not-so-thrilling thrillers, and movies so forgettable even he probably doesn't remember them. But he's hardly alone; plenty of his colleagues have followed an I'd-like-to-thank-the- Academy speech with a series of missteps. Here are a few who just might get on the right track with new films this fall:

Nicole Kidman

Kidman was unrecognizable in her Oscar-winning role as Virginia Woolf in 2002's "The Hours." Her prosthetic nose got most of the press, but her intelligent, fox-eyed performance should have. She'd done good work before (sometimes wickedly good, as in "To Die For"), but this was something entirely different: her beauty was erased, and she had to introduce herself to us anew. Her usual soft intensity was transformed into a nervous, lower-toned presence, an odd mixture of certainty and vulnerability.

Since "The Hours" — well, maybe she needs another nose. She's smiled her way through "Bewitched" and "The Stepford Wives," whispered through "Cold Mountain" and "Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus," faced peril in "The Interpreter" and "The Invasion," and gradually become less expressive; her performances often have a strange glassiness. Perhaps it's due to cosmetic work (in recent years she's developed a suspiciously motionless forehead); perhaps she hasn't found the right director; perhaps she's just waiting for another Woolf to come along.

In "The Golden Compass" this December, she'll play an icy villain, which might awaken some playfulness within her (as villainy has for Michelle Pfeiffer this season, in "Stardust" and "Hairspray"). And she'll return to dark, edgy comedy in Noah Baumbach's "Margot at the Wedding," as a woman trying to resolve her complicated relationship with her sister (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Kidman described the role to Entertainment Weekly as having "the tone of humor in 'To Die For' " — which just might do the trick.

Jennifer Connelly

Another pale, whispery beauty, Connelly's been working in movies since she was a teenager ("Labyrinth"). She won her Oscar in 2002 for a gentle, glowing performance as Russell Crowe's patient wife in "A Beautiful Mind." Since then, she's had five more movies released, none of which have quite found the right way to showcase her quiet intelligence and luminous presence.

She was lost in the mess that was Ang Lee's "The Hulk;" upstaged by dripping water in the horror film "Dark Water;" almost an afterthought in "Blood Diamond." With little screen time in "Little Children," she was terrific as a wife who suddenly realizes her marriage isn't quite as perfect as she'd thought. But it wasn't her story, nor her movie. "House of Sand and Fog," with Connelly as a troubled young woman clinging to the one thing she thought was hers — her father's house — came closest. It's a haunting performance of carefully ratcheted-up despair, but few people saw the movie.

This season, she'll appear in "Reservation Road," a drama directed by Terry George ("Hotel Rwanda") about the aftermath of a child's death in a New England town. It sounds like the sort of project that might suit Connelly well; then again, it also sounds like another wife role, in which she'll play third banana to Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo. Connelly seems to choose her projects carefully (in the same time period, she's been in half as many movies as Kidman); we'll see if this one gets her noticed again.

Adrien Brody

Brody, then still in his 20s, was unforgettable in "The Pianist," Roman Polanski's fact-based tale of a Polish concert pianist who hid from the Nazis during World War II. Seeming to fade away before our eyes, he was quiet desperation personified; focused on food and survival, only occasionally letting himself dream of music's redemptive joy.

Since his 2003 Oscar, Brody's tackled a variety of genres; it's not quite fair to say he's in a slump, but he's never again reached those heights. He brought genuine pathos to the otherwise silly thriller "The Jacket," conviction to the implausible "The Village," offbeat charm to the hugeness that was "King Kong." Brody's not a conventional leading man; his looks are stretched-out and lanky, his scarecrow face more agreeable than handsome. When Peter Jackson made him the romantic lead of "King Kong," it provided the movie's most unexpected pleasure. But even that role, and his fine work as a sly detective in "Hollywoodland," didn't resonate the way "The Pianist" did.

So, what do you do when you've won your Oscar for what just might be the role of a lifetime? You try something entirely different: quirky comedy. In "The Darjeeling Limited," writer/director Wes Anderson ("Rushmore," "The Royal Tenenbaums") has cast Brody as one of three brothers (the others are Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman) lost in India. It's a new light for Brody, and one that might be quite flattering indeed.

Halle Berry

And then, there's Berry. Like Kidman, she showed us a previously unseen side of herself in her Oscar-winning performance in "Monster's Ball." As a sad-eyed waitress who'd seen more than her share of misery, Berry quietly simmered, occasionally exploding into rage. It was an honest and beautifully modulated performance, at times quite painful to watch.

Some of her recent performances have been painful as well, for different reasons. She's starred in silly thrillers like "Gothika" and "Perfect Stranger," been little more than eye candy in "Die Another Day" and the "X-Men" movies — and let's not even enter the litter box that was "Catwoman." In none of these movies has she given anything approaching the performance level of "Monster's Ball." Then again, none of them have required that kind of nuance.

Now she's got a chance to redeem herself, with a director who has a knack for bringing out the best in actors. Susanne Bier, the gifted Danish director of "After the Wedding" and "Brothers," will make her English-language debut with the drama "Things We Lost in the Fire." Berry stars alongside Benicio del Toro (another Oscar winner we haven't seen much from lately) as a young widow coping with loss. Perhaps she'll lose her post-Oscar curse as well.

And, by the way, Cuba Gooding Jr. has another movie out this fall. Don't run; it's "American Gangster," directed by Ridley Scott, alongside Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington — who have both done nicely for themselves since winning their own Oscars. It's autumn at the movies, and time for hope.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com