Lost momentum
I like her but it is clear she has lost her momentum.
shareI think she lost momentum along time ago. My perception might be flawed, but it seemed to me that she was at her peak in the period 2000-2003 and that after that her career sputtered. Bring It On was a surprise hit but that was over 15 years ago.
I had the sense that coming off Buffy and Bring it On that if she got different opportunities (or, perhaps, if she made different choices) that her career could have gone on to the next level and that she had a shot at being a real star. It didn't happen. Of the four films of her's that were released after Bring it On three were bad, and in combination they squandered whatever grace she had gained.
It's been years, but I recall her being decent in City by the Sea. However being good in an average DeNiro movie wasn't enough to offset The New Guy, Soul Survivors and Wrong Turn.
Her two TV shows weren't hits and she never regained the momentum she'd had earlier.
That's not to infer that she's failed. Entertainment is a difficult business. To be a working actress is an achievement. To me more than than has to be considered a success. Success, like most things, being a matter of degrees. Dushku was never A-List, was never a household name but she also wasn't anonymous and she did have (and maybe still does have) her own following.
It's just as I write this (now in dying days of 2015) she's less of a star now than she was. Maybe you could argue over when exactly she lost momentum but I think it's unquestionable that she did.