Will the TomKat Divorce Help Katie Holmes’s Acting Career — and Does She Have the Talent to Sustain It?

We loved (and always will love) Dawson’s Creek — Katie Holmes’s Joey Potter included.

Now that she and Tom Cruise have agreed to the terms of their divorce settlement, thus ushering in the end of the Era of TomKat, Katie’s flagging career is likely to see a resurgence. However, is she a good enough actress to sustain it? Sure, she earned glowing praise for her work in the 2003 indie Pieces of April, but gushing critical acclaim hasn’t exactly been her post-Creek norm.

Several of Katie’s more high-profile roles — in Batman Begins (2005), Thank You For Smoking (2005), and Mad Money (2008) — received lukewarm reviews, ranging from "Holmes is OK" (Variety, for Batman Begins) to “Holmes’s presence feels like an afterthought" (The New York Times, for Mad Money). Her star turn as Jackie Kennedy in the 2011 ReelzChannel miniseries The Kennedys didn’t blow critics away, and though Jack and Jill wasn’t entirely her fault (ahem, Adam Sandler), that didn’t make it any less cringe-worthy.

Up next for the 33-year-old actress are the indie drama The Seagull, based on the classic Anton Chekhov play, and Molly, a film she co-wrote and is co-producing about a single mom and daughter. Our fingers are crossed that she hits her stride in these upcoming movies, but we’re also a little dubious.

Fortunately, Katie doesn’t necessarily have to rely on her raw acting talent (or lack thereof) to make it big sans Tom. “The divorce makes her look like a very protective mother,” a top manager tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Whether that is her producing something in the mother space or creating a clothing line, I think she looks like she is doing what is best for her child.”

Done and done! Having recently launched a fashion line with her personal stylist, Holmes & Yang, Katie has already made her first foray into the design and fashion space. Let’s just hope the reviews are good...

Sources: Wikipedia, The Hollywood Reporter

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