Why does he spend the whole movie reassuring us she doesn't die and then

That was horrible and unnecessary.

Iris West-Allen saves Linda Park-West!

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Possibly to get you to keep watching the movie or to throw people off from figuring out the ending. The first time he said it, I was like, "okay she's not going to die." Then when he said it the second time, I was like, "you know what? She's probably going to die." The only reason I thought that was because it seemed like that kind of movie. Indies do what they want! :)

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*SPOILERS*

Greg tells us after Rachel dies that he had really believed that she wouldn't die. That's what he probably kept telling himself, just as he told the viewer. When Rachel stopped treatment Greg was very upset with her and that was the first sign that things weren't going to turn out well.

And all the pieces matter (The Wire)

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Right at the start he says she dies, that his movie killed her. It's clear that those assurances during the movie are just wishful thinking on his part.

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That was the clearest indication that she would die.

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One of the opening lines is "I made a video so bad that it killed somebody". You weren't betrayed. You were told both. It's like actually have someone in your life with cancer, or even having it yourself. Everyone says they're not going to die......then poof.

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Spoiler alert! I don't get it, I felt very betrayed when she died, after he had said at least twice, "don't worry, she survives." What's up with that?

I think the writers were channeling the idea that as long as those departed are 'remembered', in some way their spirit still remains on earth.

But this idea has been grossly oversimplified over time and comprises what I call the standard Disney Denial of Death (DDD). It often takes a form where at the moment the loss is most keenly felt, someone assures us that "their spirit is watching over us (or) their spirit resides within us" which is little or no consolation to we screaming souls who are feeling irretrievable loss of an actual person. The DDD formula is rammed down our throats with cinematic pan-outs and soulful music and blur-outs but in the end, it's kind of empty.

But in the film they actually built on that tired idea and broke out of the DDD mold. Remember when the teacher tells of the death of his own father, how he began to seek out his father's friends to hear tales from the past... discovering things he might never have learned even if his father had survived into old age. He managed to continue to fill out a sketch of who his father had been. This journey took him to new places to meet new people, and is far more satisfying and rational course of action than putting the "spirit" of the departed into a jar.

(( It also suggests a real course of action to us. For example... why would this journey have to begin with a person's death? How many of our own eldest relatives are this minute sitting, waiting, somewhere? Could a a few questions and research on our part help put them in touch with friends from the distant past, whom they otherwise might never think to contact? How many of us sit down with them and listen directly to their stories? ))

After Rachel's death we see Greg glance up the stairs for a moment, then turn away. According to the standard DDD model her "spirit" isn't up there, it's everywhere. Or nowhere. But then the movie breaks out of DDD again --- he ascends to the upper floor, though not by those same stairs, to enter her room. He embarks on the journey of attempting to discover who she had been. He examines objects in her room, is seeing things she has created, things he had never noticed before.

On the wallpaper are tiny squirrels drawn in several places. But they are not different squirrels, they are the same squirrel along a path, perhaps a metaphor of the journey into the next world or just her childhood fantasy of being a squirrel. What ever it had been, the little squirrels now trace out a path through the trees to the park where her ashes are laid to rest.

And not by just writing a letter... by her very existence Rachel has helped lead Greg onto the path of life he will now follow. We see him taking forward steps with calm deliberation. This was by no means a 'sacrifice' on her part. Greg is merely the last project of a talented artist, perhaps her finest work. She has helped him to become a better person.

We feel betrayed when a romance on screen that should be is torn apart by death or circumstance. It is an echo of our own feelings of loneliness.

This film was extremely well done.

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I pondered that for a while and decided I LIKE IT

Sets it apart from cliched romcoms

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