FILM REVIEW: ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL

TITLE: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (USA, 2015)

DIRECTOR:  Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

SCRIPT: Jesse Andrews

MUSIC: Brian Eno, Nico Muhly

ACTORS: Thomas Mann, Olivia Cooke, RJ Cyler, Nick Offerman, Connie Britton, Molly Shannon…

The film tells the story of three teenagers from the perspective of one of them, Greg, the storyteller. Greg is a High School student, a little bit weird, who tries to pass unknown in his school as a survival strategy. He spends his time making domestic films inspired by the classics, with his mate Earl. Suddenly, his entire world changes when his mother obliges him to be friends with a girl who has leukaemia, Rachel. He has to visit her and be with her. Then, slowly, a beautiful friendship begins. Everything is shared from the perspective of a countdown… except perhaps love and sex. He shares his friend Earl, his odd movies, his strange and smart sense of humour and his time, while being on the verge of failing the term and losing his admission to the local university. Rachel shares her fears, her sense of life, her intimacy, her tenderness and her practical vision of things.

The film speaks about friendship in the context of a fatal disease, but with a lot of humour, making a good combination of drama and comedy. The film also deals with subjects like death, education, human relationships (parents-children, teachers-students, teenagers-teenagers), creativity, cinema, etc. but in a natural way, thanks to the smart and credible dialogues so brilliantly acted. It also combines different narrative and cinematographic languages: flashback, voice-over, cartoon, puppets, etc. with good music and in an adequate rhythm.

Before watching the film you might think you will be crying the whole time. During the film, as spectator, you have the impression that you are watching a kind of comedy and that leukaemia is a pretext. Indeed you are expecting a happy ending, but cancer is cancer and what happens sadly has to happen. That is life. Just some tears. He deeply feels the emptiness that his beloved friend has left… but he has to continue living his own life.

In fact, the film is the personal letter that Greg writes to the university asking for a second trial. He tries to justify his academic failure because he has spent the last months of his life doing a good deed and that is a good point to consider: he is a good person and is normally a good student.