Generally, when books are transformed into movies, fans expect high quality acting and a cohesive plot. My Oxford Year, a novel written by Julia Whelan was recently adapted by Netflix, starring Sofia Carson (Purple Hearts) and Corey Mylchreest (Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story), was nothing like I expected it to be. I did not read the novel, but the synopsis piqued my interest to watch the movie.  A generic, copy-paste romance movie, with actors who clearly did not fit the role of the character they were portraying, My Oxford Year was a colossal failure of cosmic proportions.

Netflix insists on pushing a Sofia Carson narrative on fans, and it’s getting tiring. Carson was not the actress for the role of Anna de la Vega, a young woman going to work at Goldman Sachs, but not before completing a year at Oxford University. Her performance in this film was not as enticing as in Purple Hearts, as she managed to play the exact same character in both of them. To put it simply, Sofia Carson cannot tell a story – especially one meant to be emotional and thought-provoking. Her awkward body language paired with her face, which did not move the 2 hours the movie lasted, ruined the impact the movie should’ve had because I was more focused on her face instead of the actual scene. 

Corey Mylchreest played a young playboy professor at Oxford named Jaime Davenport, and he just was not meant for this role. I watched Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, and I can confidently say that he can act well, with the right scene partner. His acting, paired with Carson’s, didn’t enhance the movie. Instead, it seemed like they were acting with two different scripts, and that unfortunately made My Oxford Year unemotional. The character itself was too generic for Mylchreest’s talent: an unadorned male lead who was not as remotely funny as the writers thought he was. 

It really pains me to say this, because I love romance movies, but this movie was boring. There wasn’t any part of it that stood out to me. I will not be reading the book, but I can understand why people would want to.