You still go into a film like The Good Half hoping that it has something of its own to say on the pains of bereavement. Instead, it just lands like a medley of similar (often, better) films that came before it.

"The Good Half" is desperate to say something profound about the thorny nature of grief ... But there's nothing new here that hasn't been cribbed from better, or even just earlier, texts.

Snow, as the daughter who always played second fiddle, brings real feeling to her role — suggesting that she may in fact be the good half of this insipid drama.

The more it shoots for sincerity, the more it wallows in sentimentality.