You’ll need to grab a box of tissues if you plan to watch Netflix’s new No. 1 film. Released Friday as part of August’s new arrivals, this Netflix original romance is climbing the streaming charts and leaving plenty of tears in its wake. While it has all the makings of a quintessential rom-com – an easy-to-love couple at the center of the story, a meet-cute, and plenty of romance and humor – it also offers one of the most heartbreaking romances yet, with an absolutely devastating twist. Based on Julia Whelan’s 2018 book, the film stars Sofia Carson as New York City native Anna De La Vega, whose life is forever altered when she travels to the UK to get her master’s degree in poetry at Oxford University. There, she meets and falls for her charming and clever teacher, Jamie Davenport (Corey Mylchreest).
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Directed by Iain Morris, this movie has easily earned its reputation as one of the most heartbreaking films of the year (so far). That would be My Oxford Year, and you can now stream it on Netflix.
Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS ahead!
My Oxford Year is very much reminiscent of the love story that plays out in fellow Netflix hit Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, in which the titular character comes to discover that King George (a character also played by Mylchreest) has been hiding his illness from her. Anna and Jamie’s relationship is shadowed by secrets, despite their undeniable chemistry, and as they grow to be inseparable, things take a dramatic turn when Jamie grows distant and refuses to commit to the relationship. Although Anna initially suspects an affair, the devastating truth comes to light when she barges into Jamie’s home. Rather than catching him with another woman, though, she discovers that he is battling a rare, terminal cancer and has been undergoing chemotherapy.
Jamie explains that the cancer is the same illness that his brother died from, and that he grew distant because he didn’t want her to experience the same heartbreak he watched his brother’s wife experience. Instead, Anna vows to stay by his side and even turns down her Goldman Sachs job in New York to stay in the UK because she is “of the opinion that you should never regret the things you do.”
Throughout the film, the two continue to fall in love, leading them to eventually sleep together. When Anna wakes up the next morning, she finds Jamie unresponsive in bed. He is rushed to the hospital, where it is discovered that he has a critical case of pneumonia. Jamie’s father, William (Dougray Scott), refuses further treatment because his son wants “to let nature take its course,” and Jamie dies with Anna by his side as she speaks of the “grand tour” of Europe they’ll never get to take together.
While rom-coms are typically filled with bumbling love and hilarious moments, My Oxford Year is filled with devastating heartbreak that gives way to a bittersweet romance, making every moment Anna and Jamie share all the more profound. Despite not leaving a dry eye in the room, the film is proving to be a hit among Netflix subscribers, who have helped catapult it to the top spot on Netflix’s Top 10 list globally, per FlixPatrol data. Viewership data for the film hasn’t yet been released.
My Oxford Year is now streaming on Netflix.
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