Won't go into too much detail, but I thought it was overly sentimental, and made its characters look like cardborad cut outs. Plus I just found them annoying, and if you find them annoying you are just not going to buy into the film full-stop. The scene in the Anne Frank House was just crap to try and link the experience of having cancer with going through the Holocaust is just cheap. The only things which saved the film for me, were the lead performance, and Williem Defoe's mad Dutch accient!
I respect that it worked for you, as it has for many.
