Just watched this movie for the first time...
Actually, I watched the first forty minutes or so. I read the novel back in the seventies and really enjoyed it (the 70's were the decade of reincarnation and ghosts and stuff like that; Leonard Nimoy hosting "In Search Of", you had to love it). Anyway, I have fond memories of the book...
I never got to see the movie at the time, can't recall why, but I have to say, I couldn't sit through the entire film now, it was very slow, and the little girl in the title role was a less than competant actor, she was a little kid and all, but she was just painful to watch.
If you want to see a great (and also dated) movie on reincarnation from the 70's rent "The Reincarnation of Peter Proud", that's a great movie, and the novel was even better.