Can a Little Payne Bring Halle Berry Back to Form?

There has always been talk of Oscar slumps, but Halle Berry takes it to a whole new level. She'd balanced the first X-Men with Monster's Ball, got herself a slick Academy Award, and then tanked like only ... well, I'm not sure who she tanked like because it has been one hell of a big derailment in a slowly building career. A grating Storm, a terrible Catwoman, and some other mediocre fare have made her big award-winning role easy to forget.

But could some Payne help? It's not the Max sort, but something much more international and jewelry-filled. Variety reports that Berry will star in the upcoming film Who Is Doris Payne. Based on a true story adapted by Eunetta Boone, Berry will star as one of the most successful jewel thieves the world has seen. It's a wild story you can read about in detail at MSNBC, but to be brief -- armed with aliases, clever stories, and expensive clothes, she'd walk into a store, request to see as much jewelry as possible, and usually walk out with one or two pieces the jeweler forgot about -- for years and years, both stateside and internationally.

I'm thinking this could be just the project to make us forget about Berry's mistakes and keep her out of the superhero world. It's a great character to play and exercise her talents with -- the fun of the characters Payne played while grabbing her jewels, the life and experiences that led her towards theivery, the times she was caught and incarcerated, and 5 decades to portray.

Is this perfect for Berry, or do you think I'm being too hopeful?