Plot
Anna De La Vega is an American student travelling to study Victorian poetry for a year at the University of Oxford. On her first day she gets splashed by Jamie Davenport in his vintage Jaguar sports car. Later, she finds out he will be teaching one of her classes. They both mock each other initially, but spend a fun night together which involves Anna's first time in a pub. However, Jamie seemingly rejects her at the end of the night which leads to Anna deciding to make him jealous by dancing with another man.
The next day Jamie shows her a special book, they reconcile, then are intimate, with both agreeing to keep things fun. Anna talks to Cecilia, a close friend of Jamie, who warns her away. Over the months, they become closer and finally Jamie invites Anna to his place.
Jamie reveals that his brother Eddie passed away, and he and his father no longer talk. In the morning, Jamie appears distant. Anna attends the Oxford vs Cambridge boat race in London with her friends, but she has not seen Jamie for a week due to his studying. However, she finds out that he has not been at the library in weeks, and that Cecilia has also been busy for a week.
Anna angrily goes to Jamie's place to confront him and finds Cecilia and Jamie, who appears to be sick and receiving medical treatment. He shouts at Anna to get out. Later, Jamie reveals the truth to Anna. Celia had been Eddie's girlfriend and he had died of an aggressive cancer, which is genetic and now afflicting Jamie. What Anna saw was his last treatment as he refuses to do any more due to the pain, which is why his father is angry. Jamie insists Anna not waste her time on him, but she references one of their first conversations, saying he should not suffer alone.
Jamie agrees to take Anna to the ball, where they meet his parents. Jamie's dad privately speaks with Anna, who tries to get her to convince Jamie to return home to have the best possible treatment. Jamie is still dismissive, and at the end of the night, he is weak and collapses at home. He is sent to hospital to recover and Anna sees Jamie's father outside, upset.
For Anna's birthday, she drives Jamie's car to visit the stately home he grew up in, where she is surprised by her friends for her birthday celebration. Jamie continues to avoid his father, who talks about a new drug. However, he does not want to spend the time he has left in a hospital. Jamie reveals to Anna that Eddie died at the stately home.
After her present opening, Anna finds Jamie reconciled with his father building a model car that she gifted to him, as they did when Jamie and Eddie were younger. Anna's friends find out that Jamie has cancer, and Anna tells Jamie she loves him.
When Anna receives a birthday call from her parents, she tells her mother she is staying in England instead of returning to New York to take her job. Jamie is angry at Anna's decision against her future and they argue, causing Anna to sleep in a separate room and Jamie to smash the model car his father and he worked on.
Anna decides to return to America as Jamie does not want her to stay. She graduates, and has not spoken with Jamie. They talk again, and Anna wants to remain with him while he fears she will regret it, but they eventually reconcile and are intimate.
The next morning, Anna finds Jamie unresponsive. In hospital, a doctor reveals that Jamie has developed a critical case of pneumonia as the cancer has weakened his immune system, and he requires treatment. Jamie's father finally accepts Jamie's wish and refuses. Jamie and Anna dream of travelling together as he passes away in her arms. A time skip shows Anna going on to travel Europe alone, and eventually teaching the same class Jamie taught her in.
Reception
The film was ranked at number 1 in Netflix's Global Top 10 Movies list as of August 3, 2025. [13]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 30% of 30 critics' reviews are positive. [14] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 39 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. [15]
India Today gave the film a 3.5 out of 5 star rating. [16] The German film website film-datenbank.eu gave My Oxford Year 82 out of 100 points. [17]
Benjamin Lee of The Guardian gave the film 2/5 stars, saying the film suffers from a lack of emotional depth and does not fully captivate its audience, resulting in a viewing experience that is just mediocre at best but ultimately forgettable. [18]
Honcques Laus, a scholar at the University of Oxford, critiques the film for its deficiencies in portraying the university's ceremonies and traditions. For instance, the film misconstrues the Master of Arts from Oxford as an academic degree, omits Classical Latin from the matriculation ceremony, misrepresents matriculation as a solitary journey, and mislocates the college ball. However, he acknowledges the accurate inclusion of the subfusc, the Sheldonian Theatre as the setting for ceremonies, and the use of DPhil as an abbreviation for Doctor of Philosophy at Oxford. [19]
