Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or prepping the ‘bomb raid’ shelter with tinned food ahead of World War III, you’ll have noticed the sickly banners for ‘My Oxford Year’ plastered all over Netflix in recent days. Unsurprisingly, due to the film being part of the ‘Netflix Originals’ range, the streaming giants are keen to push a heavy promo/marketing campaign on various landing pages and ‘Here’s one you may enjoy…’ style algorithms.
Though, scratch deeper than ‘The Notebook’ style artwork, and this rom (with a sprinkling of com), actually offers a charm, and twist which few could see coming, endearing the viewer to the characters of Sofia Carson‘s ‘Anna De La Vega’ and – particularly – Corey Mylchreest’s ‘Jamie Davenport’ with a magnitude much higher than the film’s somewhat undeserving IMDB rating of a stingy 6.1.
Okay, so… Slight spoiler alert, I might be something of a biased critic. As a lifelong Oxfordian myself, much of the movie served a secondary purpose of spotting familiar landmarks, and whilst I’m disappointed to burst a few bubbles on the authenticity of ‘Dimitri’s’, (a familiar haunt for Anna & Jamie throughout), the beauty of the historic City is certainly translated with the same realism as the location itself.
Showcasing the sophisticated wealth of the World’s most famous University (where Jamie, once a student, now works as an alumni lecturer), the setting is as much of a nod to their connection, as their chemistry itself. When the pair aren’t giggling over vintage books in the Bodleian Library, or punting down quaint passageways of the Thames, ‘the City of Dreaming Spires’ proves the perfect backdrop to their ‘Saltburn’ style decadence. This is most evident during a scene at Jamie’s parents, where his family display on-hand ‘staff’ to assist them within their palace, and a Merlot cellar that even George Best would be proud of.
And yet, for every critique of the heavy ‘toff’ nature weighing down what feels like a British leg of ‘Emily in Paris’ during the first 50% of the production, the film’s half-time team-talk really delivers with aplomb, washing away the surface-level ‘Instagramability’, and instead delving into a raw and emotive storyline led by esteemed producers, Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen, the powerhouse brains behind 2014’s sob-a-thon, ‘The Fault in Our Stars’.
Similarly, any chance of escaping this particular movie with a dry eye are eradicated by the time Jamie’s complex relationship with his Father, and – most importantly – brother, are unravelled to the audience. Graduating from the Disney channel’s ‘Austin & Ally’ with the grace of a serene Adult swan, Carson‘s own undeniable elegance and beauty as the movie’s female lead can, at times, feel a little too ‘perfect’ as she FaceTimes family across the pond in head-to-toe designer clobber, all on a student budget. But it is the powerful realisation of the pair’s own ticking sand-timer which adds that all-important edge of cutting realism.
‘My Oxford Year’ may well just prove this year’s ‘Marmite’ of the silver-screen. While many will, rightly, jab the lack of originality in the classic charming-British-gentleman and naive-American-with-a-lust-for-literature plot, the addition of Iain Morris (The Inbetweeners, Peep Show, etc) as the film’s director brings a much needed element of comic relief through the side characters of Charlie, Maggie, and Tom, all of whom pierce tension well within moments of what can be an undeniably weighted level of emotion and sadness.
Perhaps, as an Oxfordian graduate-turned-University-lecturer, with his own complicated relationship with his Father, I relate a little too heavily to Jamie’s character, and this has blurred my own journalistic integrity. But my advice would be to ignore the barbed online verdict of ‘frothy, throwaway fantasy‘ (The Guardian), and instead, open your own mind to the beauty of love; Within history, education, travel, and above all… Human connection.
