Judging by the pre-release marketing campaign, it looked like My Oxford Year was going to be a comedy somewhat along the lines of the popular Netflix series Emily in Paris. A fish out of water story of a scrappy young American woman making her way in a foreign European country.
How much fun that promised. A parable of a student at England’s premier university who’s already landed a prestigious post-college job at Goldman Sachs in New York. And she’s a Latina from Queens named Anna de la Vega, played by Sofia Carson.
What could possibly go wrong? Well, let’s start with the script, and the fact that if it had a single ounce of intelligence of the average Oxford freshman would’ve been pretty good. Instead, we see stilted situations of Anna lugging her luggage up the stairs only to meet the snobby gay next door neighbor who then turns out to be one of her best friends.
And then the professor she was so enamored of meeting in her poetry class has pawned off the teaching task to a hot, handsome young TA, Jamie Davenport, played by Corey Mylchreest.
They meet cute, as it were, before class when he’s driving down a street in his hot silver Jaguar and splashes her as she’s on her way to get her first taste of fish and chips at a local shop. Then who happens to arrive, but the guy in the Jaguar and a hot girl. And then there’s another hot girl. So we get it, Jamie is a ladies man and he is certainly eyeing Anna in the corner of the fish and chips shop at the same time he’s dealing with these other women. One way he does this is by hiding under the counter, the front counter–in full view of everyone.
Perhaps this is where the real goofiness started. The next thing you know, class is in session, he’s the teaching assistant, and they exchange loaded glances.
Soon, they’re having hot and heavy PDA sessions practically in full view of the other students. Watching it I thought, “Why are they condoning a professor taking up with the student– is that legal in England?” Oh, wait a minute. He’s just a TA.
We forgot to mention that he’s also from an extremely wealthy family, has a dead brother and is having problems with his father.
Meanwhile, despite their constant pleas of just having casual fun (sex), Anna is clearly considering blowing off the high-paying job waiting for her in New York to stay in London with this guy.
As the story progresses, it turns out that Jamie has a fatal disease just like his brother did and not long to live. But does he ever look anything but fully fit and handsome and able to engage in lengthy make-out and bedroom sessions?
There is somewhat of a surprise ending that we’re not going to spoil, so you’ll just have to watch it – or not.
