Flight drama takes a nosedive

FlightPlan is a movie about a paranoid woman whose six-year-old daughter goes missing during a long-distance flight.

It has all the essential ingredients of a gripping thriller, but despite Jodie Foster's strenuous acting and the endearing face of child actress Marlene Lawston, the film crashes after a promising take-off.

Foster plays Kyle, a mother who is on a flight from Berlin to New York with her daughter Julia (Lawston) after the tragic death of her husband.

When Kyle wakes up after a nap, she discovers that her daughter is missing. The airline crew search the plane, but find no trace of the girl. Oddly, nobody claims to have seen Julia and records show that her daughter never boarded the aircraft.

Is Kyle imagining things, or is there something sinister going on? This is a great hook, but the film - directed by Robert Schwentke - fails to maintain the suspense.

Too many hints are dropped and too few characters are involved to keep viewers guessing. The answer becomes obvious halfway through the film, which loses momentum as it nears the end.