I think romantic movies have become a ground to dish out shitty and cliche works to the audience from Hollywood. I am beginning to lose hope in them making a good and genuine romantic movie. Then I think back to the old romantic films that were made in the past and there was a wide difference. Where are they old writers? What happened? Did the recent trend of lifestyle affect the quality of romantic films Hollywood dish out?
My Oxford Year (2025) is a film that was distributed by Netflix. It is a romantic comedy that was directed by Iain Morris and written by Allison Burnett and Melissa Osborne. This movie is based on the novel of the same name written by Julia Whelan. It starred Sofia Carson, Corey Mylchreest, Dougray Scott, Catherine McCormack, Harry Trevaldwyn, Esmé Kingdom, Nikhil Parmar and Poppy Gilbert.
My Oxford Year (2025) is a movie that is set within the beautiful walls of Oxford. The story of this movie tells us about a love story that's sweet, then it goes sour and then it goes bitter. It is also a love story that very much focuses more about letting go of love regardless of how hard we fight to keep them.
The plot of this revolves around Anna De La Vega who is an American student travelling to study Victorian poetry for a year at the University of Oxford. When she got to the campus on her first day, she was splashed water by a vintage Jaguar sports car. But then, the second day she gets to officially meet the driver/owner of this Vintage car, Jamie Davenport who happens to be one of her lecturers.
At first, they both didn't like each other and they mocked each other. However, everything changed when they both spent the night together doing fun things together. Jaime took Anna to a pub which was her first time going there. At the end of the night, Anna kissed Jaime while he didn't reciprocate this action. Jaime left without any assurance he is into her. Will Anna get into trouble? Is she supposed to kiss her lecturer because of the night's fun? How will this story end?
Like I said earlier, to watch a good romantic movie in this age and time is a miracle. This movie is a bit manageable but it is not an impressive movie that sticks with you. It's a movie you watch and forget. Well, the movie would have been fantastic except for some few things that disrupted the flow and the performance of the movie.
The casting of this movie was not done appropriately and it was wrong. Especially the main actor Sofia Carson. She was terrible with her role. She was stiff, no charisma, no chemistry with her. Her performance seemed forced and unnatural. She wasn't convincing in her role hence the reason why I couldn't connect with her. The emotional scenes in the movie, she performed them all like a robot. Her face, and mannerism were devoid of empathy. She was just horrible!
Corey Mylchreest on the other hand delivered a strong and and charismatic performance. He was good, he carried his role. His performance compensated for the poor performance of the main actor and other supporting characters. To be honest, I watched the movie to the end because of him.
Then we have Harry Trevaldwyn (as the gay best friend). I don't know where the producers of the movie got him from but he was annoying.
The plot was written poorly. The story was straightforward, predictable, and it was cliché. The whole plot reminded me of some many romantic movies I have watched in the past. As I started watching the movie, I immediately knew how it would end.
The thing I enjoyed about this movie is the setting of Oxford. I enjoyed seeing all the scenery, the halls, the libraries and THE BOOKS! I enjoyed Corey Mylchreest’s performance and also I enjoyed how sweet bitter love was portrayed. Not all love stories have a happy ending.
Rating this movie, I will give it 5 out of 10 stars. It was watchable and a little bit enjoyable but it was impressive. It is a movie you would watch and would want to rewatch later on.
All images above are from the movie screenshots
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