Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a story of an unlikely friendship between two co-workers and a leukaemia-stricken girl.
Greg Gaines is pretty much the average 17 year old- a pale skinned, self-loathing, lanky, ginger haired masturbator. He is insecure of his body and looks and decides to pass high school on 'low-key terms'.There isn't really much to say about Greg, apart from the fact that he's overly modest, awkward, afraid of commitment and comfortable with being unextraordinary. He learns that a fellow student and childhood acquaintance, Rachel Kushner, has been diagnosed with leukaemia. Forced by his mother, he befriends her and forms an unlikely and 'doomed' friendship- something he didn't think would happen at all.
As the two spend more and more time with each other, Rachel goes into chemotherapy and loses her hair. Upset about it, Greg comforts her and makes her laugh with his abnormal stories about pillows. After seeing Rachel is becoming more and more miserable as time goes, Greg, although reluctant at first, introduces Rachel to Earl. Earl Jackson is Greg's best friend- although Greg always refers to him as a 'co-worker'. The two clicked at a very young age and started making short, horrible movies, parodying other movies. To cheer her up, Earl suggests she see some of their movies,in hope that it would cheer her up.Before Rachel knows it, she's sucked into these movies and they're the only things which can make her smile. The two are inseparable best buddies and spend all the time they can together. Rachel manages to convince Greg to apply for college, something he really doesn't want to do at all. Before he knows it, he gets accepted. Rachel's friend, Denise (who's smoking hot by the way), convinces Greg and Earl to make a movie for Rachel, as it would be the perfect thing for her before dying. Greg is reluctant to doing so as he's a shitty moviemaker, but after consistent reminders from his high school crush, he goes along to do it. Interviewing the other students for the movie, he notices that it's hopeless.
However, his life is struck with some bad news. When Rachel's disease worsens, she decides to stop chemotherapy. Greg gets really pissed off with her for just giving up. He keeps his distance from her, and unfortunately gets his place at college taken away due to him doing no class work whatsoever. He also gets in a fight with Earl after he tells her about the movie they were making for her.
When Rachel's on her deathbed, it's prom night. Denise has just asked Greg to prom, but he goes to the hospital to visit Rachel. He apologises for taking so long for the movie and puts it on the projector. Sitting side by side, they watch, as Rachel's eyes start tearing up. After a few minutes, she can barely speak, and Greg runs off to go get the nurse. With the movie still playing, Rachel is in a coma, and dies 8 hours later.
Greg and Earl reconcile at her Shiva, and Greg sneaks up into Rachel's room. There, he finds a card from her explaining that she wrote a letter to the college Greg applied to in order to let them know he missed school and fell behind in class work for her sake. He also finds several intricate carvings within her books, depicting scenes of her with Greg and Earl. At this moment, he realises just how much he meant to her. He leaves with one of the books and his favourite of Rachel's pillows.
Some time later, Greg writes his story of his time with Rachel and mails it to the college, along with the film he made for her.
Greg Gaines is pretty much the average 17 year old- a pale skinned, self-loathing, lanky, ginger haired masturbator. He is insecure of his body and looks and decides to pass high school on 'low-key terms'.There isn't really much to say about Greg, apart from the fact that he's overly modest, awkward, afraid of commitment and comfortable with being unextraordinary. He learns that a fellow student and childhood acquaintance, Rachel Kushner, has been diagnosed with leukaemia. Forced by his mother, he befriends her and forms an unlikely and 'doomed' friendship- something he didn't think would happen at all.
As the two spend more and more time with each other, Rachel goes into chemotherapy and loses her hair. Upset about it, Greg comforts her and makes her laugh with his abnormal stories about pillows. After seeing Rachel is becoming more and more miserable as time goes, Greg, although reluctant at first, introduces Rachel to Earl. Earl Jackson is Greg's best friend- although Greg always refers to him as a 'co-worker'. The two clicked at a very young age and started making short, horrible movies, parodying other movies. To cheer her up, Earl suggests she see some of their movies,in hope that it would cheer her up.Before Rachel knows it, she's sucked into these movies and they're the only things which can make her smile. The two are inseparable best buddies and spend all the time they can together. Rachel manages to convince Greg to apply for college, something he really doesn't want to do at all. Before he knows it, he gets accepted. Rachel's friend, Denise (who's smoking hot by the way), convinces Greg and Earl to make a movie for Rachel, as it would be the perfect thing for her before dying. Greg is reluctant to doing so as he's a shitty moviemaker, but after consistent reminders from his high school crush, he goes along to do it. Interviewing the other students for the movie, he notices that it's hopeless.
However, his life is struck with some bad news. When Rachel's disease worsens, she decides to stop chemotherapy. Greg gets really pissed off with her for just giving up. He keeps his distance from her, and unfortunately gets his place at college taken away due to him doing no class work whatsoever. He also gets in a fight with Earl after he tells her about the movie they were making for her.
When Rachel's on her deathbed, it's prom night. Denise has just asked Greg to prom, but he goes to the hospital to visit Rachel. He apologises for taking so long for the movie and puts it on the projector. Sitting side by side, they watch, as Rachel's eyes start tearing up. After a few minutes, she can barely speak, and Greg runs off to go get the nurse. With the movie still playing, Rachel is in a coma, and dies 8 hours later.
Greg and Earl reconcile at her Shiva, and Greg sneaks up into Rachel's room. There, he finds a card from her explaining that she wrote a letter to the college Greg applied to in order to let them know he missed school and fell behind in class work for her sake. He also finds several intricate carvings within her books, depicting scenes of her with Greg and Earl. At this moment, he realises just how much he meant to her. He leaves with one of the books and his favourite of Rachel's pillows.
Some time later, Greg writes his story of his time with Rachel and mails it to the college, along with the film he made for her.
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