If you saw the trailer and thought, "Aww, this could be a good romantic movie to watch," you are absolutely wrong, my friend. Warning: this is your sign to pay close attention to this review. There will be spoilers, so if you want to watch it fresh, stop reading after this paragraph.
But if you&rsquo;re still here, let me tell you &mdash; this isn&rsquo;t your typical rom-com. It&rsquo;s not "10 Things I Hate About You," "Love Actually," or "Love &amp; Other Drugs." It leans more into the emotional territory of "Me Before You," "Five Feet Apart," "A Star Is Born," or "The Fault in Our Stars." That said, don&rsquo;t expect it to be as heart-wrenching as those masterpieces. You won&rsquo;t be left sobbing on the floor or gasping for air as fate tears apart a perfectly in-love couple.
Let&rsquo;s talk facts. My Oxford Year is based on Julia Whelan&rsquo;s novel and stars Sofia Carson as Anna De La Vega and Queen Charlotte&rsquo;s Corey Mylchreest as Jamie Davenport. Anna takes a gap year before landing a big financial analyst job to study poetry at Oxford. There, she bumps into Jamie &mdash; quite literally &mdash; when he splashes her with water from his convertible Jaguar. Surprise: he's also her professor.
Now, you're probably wondering &mdash; is a professor-student romance allowed at Oxford? The answer: yes and no. Yes, until 2023. And since the book came out in 2018, let&rsquo;s just roll with it.
<iframe title="My Oxford Year | Official Trailer | Netflix" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EKQPCiUSRAo" width="1128" height="635" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>&nbsp;
At first, it feels like your classic spicy professor-student tension, but the story quickly shifts. Anna suspects Jamie is dating his friend Cecillia&mdash; until she walks into his home and finds medical supplies everywhere. Jamie confesses he has genetic lung cancer. The reveal is oddly underplayed, and they never really clarify what his brother Eddie died of &mdash; just &ldquo;cancer&rdquo; with no details.
So, does this plot make your heart ache? Honestly, no. I couldn&rsquo;t stop comparing it to Me Before You &mdash; which absolutely wrecked me when I first watched it at 16. That film tore me apart. I sobbed for three hours and woke up with puffy eyes. But My Oxford Year? It didn&rsquo;t hit that hard. It&rsquo;s not bad &mdash; it just wasn&rsquo;t the emotional punch I expected.
What stood out, though, was the film&rsquo;s theme: &ldquo;Live life deliberately.&rdquo; At first, Anna (a classic Type A planner) takes this to mean &ldquo;plan everything.&rdquo; But as the story progresses, she learns it means to truly live in the moment. To stop planning every detail and just be present.
That shift hits deep. She ends up staying in the UK, ditching the 9&ndash;5 life waiting for her in the U.S., because Jamie helped her fall in love with life again &mdash; with her own life, even if it wasn&rsquo;t going to be with him forever.
So, is it worth watching? Yes. Could it have gone deeper, hit harder? Honestly, yes. Will you enjoy it anyway? Absolutely.
Photo Credit: Netflix's Official Instagram account&nbsp;

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