The Lovely Bones

I think this film is about 20 minutes too long, as it unravels the death of Susie Salmon, a 14 year old girl who goes missing, but Susie appears to be stuck in some form of purgatory and with almost ghost-like aspirations in revisting the real world for her unsolved murder.  It's sort of muddy when we are subjected to Susie's voiceovers, and the subplot involving her father's search for possible murderers seems almost like an exaggerated after-thought (meaning I just never felt the film paid enough respect to the father's quest for Susie's murderer, as it kept floating back to Susie's own internal monologue of sorts).  That being said, there are some fine moments of suspense and a helluva money shot, it's just too bad it felt like there was just too much meandering in the midsection.

I give it 2.5 stars or a grade of C+.