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MY OXFORD YEAR

“Embracing Life’s Unexpected Joys and Sorrows”

Family Content: -2 Extreme caution for older teenagers and adults.

Entertainment Quality:

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Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

MY OXFORD YEAR, a romantic drama on Netflix, follows Anna, a poetry student at Oxford. Anna has her life carefully planned. She’ll spend a year at Oxford studying poetry and then return to New York City, where she’ll start work at the financial firm Goldman Sachs. However, she meets Jamie, a handsome professor who urges her to embrace the unexpected. Soon, Anna and Jamie strike up a romance, but promise they’ll keep things casual. However, Jamie is keeping a secret that will change both their lives. 

 

MY OXFORD YEAR tells a moving story about the impact of love. It stresses embracing life’s unexpected joys and sorrows. However, the movie is sometimes repetitive, and the ending feels rushed. MY OXFORD YEAR has a mixed worldview with Christian, moral and Romantic elements. For example, there’s a Christmas church service, and Jamie reconciles with his father. However, Jamie constantly urges Anna to follow her heart. MY OXFORD YEAR also implies that Jamie and Anna sleep together. Finally, the movie has more than 25 obscenities and profanities, including two strong ones. MOVIEGUIDE® advises extreme caution. 

Content:

(Pa, B, C, Ro, Ho, LLL, S, N, AA, M): 

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

  Mixed pagan worldview with moral, Christian and romantic elements including an emphasis on the importance of family (male lead is estranged from his father, who doesn’t understand why he’s refusing cancer treatment, but the pair reconcile) and friendship (female lead comes to rely on the friends she made at Oxford for emotional support), there’s a scene with a Christmas church service, and the male lead tells the female lead to visit a special church in Amsterdam, but there are also Romantic themes such as male lead encourages female lead to follow her heart and emotions, plus a side character is homosexual;

Foul Language:

  13 obscenities (including one “f” word), one strong profanity using the name of Jesus Christ, and 16 light profanities;

Violence:

  No violence;

Sex:

  It’s implied that the unmarried romantic leads are having a sexual relationship although nothing explicit is shown, three scenes show female lead waking up at boyfriend’s apartment, and female lead has a friend who thinks he’s homosexual, although he’s not shown kissing or being romantic with another man;

Nudity:

  A few scenes feature upper male nudity (for example, a man doesn’t have his shirt on when he receives chemotherapy or visits the beach);

Alcohol Use:

  Dozens of scenes feature alcohol at bars and parties, but no drunkenness;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

  No smoking or drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

  Male romantic lead keeps a secret from female romantic lead and lies about his whereabouts to avoid her finding out, and man is estranged from his father for much of the movie, but the two reconcile by the end. 

 

More Detail:

In Netflix’s MY OXFORD YEAR, a poetry student Anna learns how to embrace the unexpected twists and turns of life after striking up a romance with a young professor, who has a secret that will change both their lives. MY OXFORD YEAR is a moving romantic drama, but the plot gets repetitive, and the movie has a mixed worldview with Christian, moral and Non-Christian elements, plus implied sexual activity, alcohol use and more than 25 obscenities and profanities. 

 Anna De La Vega has her life all planned out. After a year studying Victorian poetry, her true passion, at Oxford, she’ll head back to New York City, where a job at the prestigious financial firm Goldman Sachs awaits her. 

 However, the professor she planned to study under takes a new position. Even worse, Anna is less than thrilled by her replacement, a first-time teacher named Jamie Davenport. Jamie challenges Anna’s coursework, urging her to let go of her rigid views and plans and embrace life’s messy and unplanned moments. 

 The pair grows closer together. They spend time exploring a side of Oxford Anna hadn’t accounted for on her carefully planned Oxford To-Do List. This soon leads to a romantic relationship. However, both Anna and Jamie are adamant that it’s just fun and not serious. Anna still plans to leave at the end of the year, but Jamie keeps his reason for the casual relationship to himself. 

 After months together, Anna notices Jamie starting to pull away from her. She goes to confront him and stumbles on the secret he’s been keeping from her. 

 MY OXFORD YEAR is a moving story about the impact love can have, no matter how brief, as well as the importance of embracing life’s unexpected joys and sorrows. However, the plot becomes somewhat repetitive. For example, Anna and Jamie have the same fight repeatedly, and the ending feels rushed. 

 MY OXFORD YEAR has a mixed worldview. While there are moral elements, like the importance of family and friends, there are also some Romantic elements. For example, Jamie continually encourages Anna to follow her heart and listen to what her gut is telling her. Sadly, many scenes imply sexual activity, although nothing is shown. In addition, MY OXFORD YEAR has many scenes featuring alcohol and strong foul language. MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children.