Netflix’s penchant for taking two pretty and committed faces and throwing them into a cesspool of romantic mediocrity continues with its latest offering, “My Oxford Year” (2025). Starring Sofia Carson and Corey Mylchreest, the Iain Morris-directed film aims for poignancy but can only become a series of tried and tired romantic tropes.
The film pits a dainty dreamer-girl against a swoonworthy British boy who serves cake, figuratively and literally. Understandably, the two get involved in a fling, which turns out to be something more. Let us see how Anna and Jamie shape each other’s lives.
My Oxford Year (2025) Netflix Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
Anna (Sofia Carson) is someone who has planned her entire life, starting with chalking out her career as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs. However, underneath that pragmatism, there is a wishful little girl’s dream hidden somewhere. It is that little girl’s voice that forces Anna not to start her career right away. She gets into Oxford University in England to study Victorian poetry.
A year of looking at the other side before she starts her career in America. Quite unsurprisingly, not everything goes according to Anna’s plans. Starting with the meet-cute with a suave British lad, Jamie (Corey Mylchreest).
The initial frostiness melts as Anna learns that Jamie is going to be her teacher at Oxford. Anna could not help but feel the attraction. However, Jamie is always accompanied by another girl, Cecelia (Poppy Gilbert). Anna assumes Cecelia is Jamie’s girlfriend.
Despite Cecelia’s multiple measures to thwart Anna’s efforts, Jamie and Anna start to become a thing. From late-night walks through the university alleys to enjoying kebabs, the two cannot help but fall for each other. However, both decide to keep it on the ‘unserious’ side, terming it as ‘fun.’
Although Anna seems to be eager to keep their dating in the ‘casual’ stage initially, she slowly becomes involved enough to ask for more. However, Jamie seems to keep a certain distance. When he’s around, he quotes Tennyson and Keats.
But, there is an undercurrent of aloofness that sometimes reflects through Jamie’s behaviour. Anna is smart enough to pick up on that. When she asks Jamie to accompany her for the annual boat race, he declines, saying he will need to study in the library. However, Anna encounters the librarian at the race, and she informs her that Jamie has not been in the library for weeks. Anna also learns that Cecelia has used the same excuse not to come to the race.
My Oxford Year (2025) ‘Netflix’ Movie Ending Explained:
Who Was Cecilia?
Convinced that Jamie and Cecelia are still together, and Jamie has been two-timing her, Anna storms into Jamie’s house. She finds Cecelia there all right. However, she gets the shock of her life when she sees Jamie receiving treatment. An enraged Jamie asks her to get out. However, later he comes around. He reveals that he has cancer. The same cancer that killed his older brother, Eddie.
He also reveals that Cecelia is not his girlfriend, but his brother’s girlfriend. Naturally, the mutual loss has pushed them to become close friends. It becomes clear that when Cecelia warned Anna, she did not do it in a possessive bid to keep her clutches on Jamie intact. She did it to save Anna from the impending doom. She did not want Anna to follow in her footsteps and become devastated later. Just like that, Cecelia becomes a much more compassionate character.
Why Did Jamie Refuse Treatment?
It is the same reason Jamie did not want the relationship to proceed further. He hoped Anna would go back to America with happy memories, instead of getting entangled in this tragic mess. However, as Anna reminds Jamie, the mess makes life better. So, she sticks around. She learns Jamie and his dad, William (Dougray Scott), had a massive row regarding Jamie’s treatment options. Jamie does not want to continue treatment as it is not going to change anything. Like he always says, Jamie wants to utilize his remaining life force to its full extent. He cannot afford to spend that on a hospital bed fruitlessly.
William, however, feels Jamie is being unreasonable for not even trying. Like any parent would in this sort of situation, he looks for new hope in the form of new treatments; treatments that did not work on Eddie.
However, Jamie will have none of it. Anna realizes that she could help the situation. So, for her birthday, she takes Jamie to his ancestral house to spend the week with his family and friends. With a bit of prodding from Anna and Jamie’s mother, Antonia, the quarrelling duo makes up. Jamie spends the night with his dad, drinking and constructing toy cars from scratch.
Was Jamie Present with Anna on her European tour?
Later that night, Jamie overhears Anna telling her mother that she is planning to stay. This means Anna is refusing the Goldman Sachs job. Jamie intervenes angrily, saying he does not want her to throw her career away for him.
However, he does not realize that Anna never wanted that. She always loved poetry. She always dreamed of a career in art. Jamie simply showed her the ropes. He did not force her to do anything she never wanted to do in the first place.
As the two patch things up, Jamie falls severely ill. The doctor asks William if they should try some experimental treatment. However, honoring Jamie’s wishes, William denies. Jamie survives for the time being and comes back with Anna. We see Anna and Jamie travelling to their much-discussed European destinations. Like drinking by the Seine, or going to the quaint church in the Amsterdam red-light district. However, as the scene travels back and forth, we realize Jamie died before making that trip. He died in his sleep, with Anna beside her.
But that does not mean Jamie was not present in those places. Sure, Anna slept on the gondola alone. She drank beside the Seine alone. She went to the Amsterdam church alone. However, Jamie was always present with her. As a memory.
Earlier, when Anna asked if Cecelia regretted loving Eddie, Cecelia said no. And that is because, despite the short time, they had memories. And those memories can accompany Cecelia everywhere for the rest of her life. Just like it is doing to Anna. So, when Anna fills the poetry teacher position in Oxford, which was Jamie’s position, she does it along with Jamie. His words and memories live within her.
My Oxford Year (2025) ‘Netflix’ Movie Review:
Based on Julia Whelan’s book by the same name, “My Oxford Year” could remind one of “Notting Hill,” the 1999 hit rom-com. The premise, at the very least, is quite similar to that of the Hugh Grant-Julia Roberts starrer.
However, the Netflix movie does not have Richard Curtis as its writer. As a result, it fails to navigate the romantic alleys of a story featuring star-crossed lovers. It stumbles and often clutches at the helpful narrative clichés. The most accommodating of those helping hands is the big one. Jamie’s vaguely defined cancer drives the story. To nowhere. And “My Oxford Year” lacks the gravitas to make that journey memorable.
The theme of the film is to ‘seize the day.’ Enjoy life at its fullest, because it is fleeting. Alas, this noble intention is undermined by a series of contrived moments. Moments that do not speak to the audience. They feel jaded, like a distant memory of someone else. Like a distant memory of some other movie.
Set around the pristinely aesthetic locales of Oxford University, “My Oxford Year” makes good use of its geography and its equally aesthetically pleasing lead pair. For it is the earnestness in Carson and Mylchreest’s committed performances that forces you not to close the Netflix window.
