THERE are any number of bad jokes you could make about the title of this film, but I don't think I'll bother to make any, such as suggesting that its makers seem to have "forgotten" the plot. Oops, too late.

A bizarre thriller, it inexplicably (given the standard of the script) stars Oscar-nominated actress Julianne Moore (pictured) as Telly Paretta, a woman who, when we first meet her, is still grieving for her son Sam, killed in a plane crash a little over 12 months ago.

Making daily visits to his room to look at his belongings and stare at photographs and videotapes of him, she's trying to get her life back on track for the sake of her marriage, when suddenly her psychiatrist (Gary Sinise) informs her that she never had a son to begin with.

In league with her husband (ER's Anthony Edwards), he tries to convince Telly that she remembers Sam's life as some form of post-traumatic reaction to a miscarriage.

But when she meets a drunk man called Ash (Dominic West) one evening in the park, whose daughter was on the same plane as Sam, and who had totally forgotten about her existence, she knows that there's more to this amnesia than meets the eye.

What's most frustrating about The Forgotten is its waste of a highly talented cast. Sinise and Edwards appear for practically 10 minutes each, while brilliant British actor Linus Roache is left to flounder in the worst role, as the omnipresent, invincible bad guy.

Moore does her bit to engage us, but the genuine sympathy she creates for her plight cannot aid an audience in digesting the muddle that is the central notion of the plot - where have the children gone?

There are two greatly shocking moments in the film that can't fail to leave an audience gasping, but the ultimate revelations here just don't cut the mustard, being nothing in the way of any explanation at all.

The revelation that people are being whipped skywards is left as this movie pony's one nonsense trick, and that, quite frankly, is far from enough.