Whether or not Materialists successfully revived the rom-com is up for debate, but the romantic drama is thriving. Or, rather, Sofia Carson’s career is thriving, because she’s about to log her third in as many years for Netflix. (The other two being 2022’s Purple Heartsand this year’s The Life List.) In My Oxford Year, Carson stars as an American exchange student Anna who meets “a charming and clever local” (Corey Mylchreest) “who profoundly alters both of their lives” during her year abroad in the U.K., per the film’s synopsis.
That local, Jamie, just so happens to be her Oxford poetry teacher. And wouldn’t you know it, he’s also damaged—beyond repair, at least in his mind. “You don’t need to try and fix my life. Some things are just broken,” he tells Anna right after breaking up with her because they were just “having fun” and right before throwing some sort of electronic gadget on the ground. (Perhaps a tea kettle? Or an iron?) Whatever it is, the romantic drama is alive and well.
My Oxford Year was adapted from Julia Whelan’s 2018 novel of the same name and directed by BAFTA nominee Iain Morris (The Inbetweeners). But while there’s undeniably a lot of capital-D Drama going on here (at one point, Jamie tells Anna not to “waste the short time you have left in Oxford on me”), Carson promises that the movie will dip into rom-com territory as well. “Comedy is [Morris’] language, so his vision of this film beautifully created a timeless, heartbreaking, sweeping romance, grounded in laughter. Within one scene you may fall madly in love, you may cry, but he will always make sure the joy of laughter is present,” she told Tudum. Maybe the rom-com is back after all.
