Based on a novel by Julia Whelan with screenplay by Allison Burnett & Melissa Osborne, this Hollywood film titled “My Oxford Year” set majorly in Oxford, United Kingdom is directed by Iain Morris and Executively produced by Sofia Carson (also starring as Anna De La Vega) and several others. The Romance drama with a runtime of 1hour 52minutes, released on the 1st of August, 2025, is now available for streaming on Netflix. 

SYNOPSIS: (MAY contain spoilers)

Anna De La Vega (Sofia Carson) goes to Oxford for a literature programme where she encounters Jamie Davenport (Corey Mylchreest) as the professor in charge of the course. No sooner had Anna set foot to sail than there’s a spark between her and her professor. But Anna might just be in for a shocker as this ship is about to change her life forever or maybe never.

MY TAKE:

It was quite the nostalgia for me seeing Corey Mylchreest here. If you watched Shonda Rhimes’s spinoff of her Bridgerton series “Queen Charlotte” where he played the role of the young King, fondly called ‘Farmer George’ and how much he embodied that character, you’ll know why I was super elated. It was equally lovely to see Sofia from “The Life List” here too.

I noticed the subtle references to the Bridgerton series & its spinoff. First was the mention of Anthony Bridgerton and next was the iconic yelling of “GET OUT!” from the Queen Charlotte series. But unlike Queen Charlotte who retorted, screaming “No, No, I will not get out…I WILL STAY!” Anna however runs away in this one.

While this movie took off quite nicely and promising; excitedly so, sadly, it melted into a bore from about the third scene. Saddled with way too many cliches for comfort or enjoyability, “My Oxford Year” as predictable as it is didn’t offer anything new to the table of Romcoms. In fact, not only was there no real on-screen chemistry between the two leads – Sofia & Corey, the build up of their relationship was equally not solid nor compelling enough as before any one could spell OXFORD, we already saw kisses flying and you find yourself asking, rhetorically “okay how did we get here?”

More disappointingly, I found myself rolling my eyes severally as the sequencing went from one insipid scene to another. It was not until the third act when I was almost going to tune off that a revelation from Jamie made me stick around to finish the film. Even that in itself isn’t anything mind blowing for a wow-factor. Still very much cliche, nonetheless, it was somewhat intriguing enough to keep me till the end and hold up my already staggering interest. 

Now for a story which plot highlights or takes off on the premises of literature, the dialogues aren’t so educational; well except for one or two occasions where Anna talks about a theory from a book which appears to challenge the love certain men express to their women positing that it only lasts about six months and how this links up to Jamie’s situation as a metaphor.

This movie from the title, apparently was meant to be a hundred percent centred on Anna. Not impressive how it completely drifted as it experienced a paradigm shift, focusing more on Jamie as the movie progressed. It almost…scratch that…it certainly became about him and his daddy issues till the end. Its duration which could have been slashed or made at least 30minutes shorter, the film lost half the time before managing to get into the nitty gritty of the story.

Performance wise and interpretation of role here had me a wee bit underwhelmed as opposed to what I expected especially from the two leads. Nevertheless, the character that showed real emotions for me in this movie is Jamie’s dad Mr. William Davenport (as portrayed by Dougray Scott). He expressed the characteristics of a loving father estranged from his son. Although this aspect of the story was carried along from the beginning of the film in terms of direction and dialogue, it still felt detached for how it was executed.

CONCLUSION:

For a RomCom, this movie had huge prospects to be very interesting, engaging, relatable & entertaining but there were no fireworks in the skies of romance nor butterflies in the garden of love talks. It was just bland in my opinion.

VERDICT: 4/10

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