My Oxford Year Review: My Oxford Year, starring Sofia Carson and Corey Mylchreest, is a tragic love story on Netflix. This in-depth review explores the film’s beautiful portrayal of the bittersweetness of romance, love, dreams, and death.
This movie begins on a happy and exciting note, featuring Sofia Carson as Anna De La Vega, an American student traveling to study Victorian poetry at the University of Oxford. On the first day, she gets acquainted with Corey Mylchreest as Jamie Davenport in a rather awkward meet-cute where he splashes her in his sports car. Later, she gets to know that Jamie will be teaching one of her classes.
After a fun night at a British pub, we can notice a spark between them, making things even more exciting as the story progresses. Soon, they become closer to each other as Anna shares about her plan for and her love for old books. Initially, they decide to keep things “fun”. Things take a strange turn after Jamie starts avoiding Anna, and due to this, she starts to doubt his loyalty. Little did she know that things were about to get dark as she found out that Jamie was severely sick.
My Oxford Year Review
Sofia Carson does a phenomenal job at playing the role of Anna. She beautifully captures Anna’s love for Victorian poetry and old books, and big libraries. Anna is independent and has perfectly planned out her entire life. She is trained as a financial analyst and was about to take a job at Goldman Sachs after her year at Oxford. In the beginning, she is shown as a career-driven woman who will always stick to her plan. But life had something else planned for her as she met Jamie.
Corey Mylchreest beautifully portrays the charismatic personality of Jamie. Jamie teaches poetry at the University of Oxford. He believes in living each moment of life deliberately. He embraces death and mortality instead of dreading them. He is charming and loves showing Anna different spots in Oxford that he personally adores.
My Oxford Year is based on the novel written by Julia Whelan, and Iain Morris adapts it as a movie in such an exquisite way. Although it might seem as a topic used in a lot of romantic stories, it has it’s own ambiguity and elegance. Carla Renata on Rotten Tomatoes says: “My Oxford Year not only serves as a beautiful honor to a legendary academic institution, but stands as a reminder to live in the moment as tomorrow is not promised to anyone”. The movie’s major theme is England, and you can observe it in the tiniest details. The ancient roads, the huge libraries, and the delicious kebabs, which is sweetly shown as “their thing”.
Therefore, it wonderfully shows that life doesn’t always go according to plan, but it’s important to embrace each moment and make your own decisions despite what others tell you, even the ones that love you. It’s about how one experience can change your entire perception of life. It’s about “Sucking out all the marrow of life” as they quoted the classic Dead Poets Society line. At the end, we see Anna’s Oxford Year actually becoming her Oxford Life.
