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Netflix's romantic drama My Oxford Year is less about a love story and more about what happens when life refuses to follow the script. At the film's center is Anna De La Vega (Sofia Carson), a driven American student who arrives in Oxford on a prestigious scholarship, only to fall for her charming and secretive poetry tutor, Jamie Davenport (Corey Mylchreest). But by the time the credits roll, viewers are left wondering, what exactly was this story about? And did Jamie's last choice rewrite the ending?
Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers for My Oxford Year. Reader's discretion is advised.
In the film’s final moments, Jamie chooses to stop treatment for his rare genetic cancer, opting to live his remaining days fully rather than prolong his life through painful therapies. After wrestling with the decision to return to her lucrative job offer at Goldman Sachs, Anna ultimately decides to stay in Oxford with Jamie.
But when she wakes up one morning, Jamie is unresponsive, and it becomes clear his condition has worsened. A doctor confirms Jamie has developed a critical case of pneumonia. Finally, respecting Jamie’s autonomy, his father allows nature to take its course.
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What follows is a dreamlike montage of the European grand tour Jamie once described, with Anna traveling alone but imagining him beside her. In the final moments, Anna steps into Jamie’s old classroom as a professor, echoing his opening line with cake in hand. But what are we supposed to make of that final sequence? Was it closure, surrender, or something more ambiguous?
Let’s dig into the ending’s deeper meaning, its stark difference from the book, and how My Oxford Year reframes the idea of love, death, and legacy.
How does Jamie’s decision reframe the story in My Oxford Year?
Jamie’s choice to forgo treatment reflects not just his worldview but the trauma of watching his brother Eddie endure the same terminal illness. Having witnessed the emotional toll and futile suffering caused by aggressive treatment, Jamie opts instead to live “deliberately,” a recurring theme borrowed from Thoreau’s Walden, which he discusses with Anna.
His actions aren’t selfish; they’re rooted in experience. He doesn’t tell Anna because he wants her to live her Oxford year on her terms, not in his shadow. But love disrupts that plan. Jamie's decision, in this context, doesn’t make him a passive figure in a tragic romance; it makes him the author of his fate.
My Oxford Year deliberately resists the romantic cliché of the dying character whose fate is softened by love. Jamie’s final choice doesn’t just shape Anna’s grief; it defines her transformation. He teaches her that presence matters more than permanence, and in honoring his choice, Anna becomes not his caretaker, but his equal.
Why did My Oxford Year change the book’s ending?
One of the most striking differences between Julia Whelan’s novel and the film adaptation lies in Jamie’s fate. In the book, Jamie survives a bout of pneumonia and enrolls in a clinical trial, allowing him and Anna (known as Ella in the novel) to embark on their European adventure together.
The film takes a more grounded approach. Jamie dies, and Anna goes on the grand tour alone, imagining him beside her in every city. The montage begins with joyful, shared moments and gradually transitions to solitary frames, such as Anna at the Seine, on a gondola, and a Greek beach. It’s this shift that signals Jamie’s absence.
Sofia Carson, who also served as a producer, defended the change in an interview with Entertainment Weekly published on August 1, 2025.
“Even though it's clear Anna's alone at the end, we left it a little bit ambiguous because we wanted the film to end with hope and with light.”
Corey Mylchreest added,
“It’s more powerful. That is the direction that the book is heading in, and it would feel like hypocrisy for Jamie to speak all these things and for Anna to be understanding that philosophy of life [and not end there].”
Rather than offering false reassurance, the film embraces emotional truth. Jamie doesn’t get a miracle. But Anna gets clarity. The love they shared becomes the foundation for a future that no longer revolves around status or success, but meaning.
What does Anna’s final decision really mean?
When Anna first arrives at Oxford, her life is a checklist: Cornell, Oxford, Goldman Sachs. Her journey is driven by ambition, structure, and external expectations. But Jamie, with his whimsical love for poetry and disdain for rigid plans, introduces a different perspective: that a short, intense life can be just as meaningful as a long, predictable one.
Anna’s decision to stay in Oxford and later go on the European tour alone reflects a seismic shift. She isn’t giving up her future, she’s redefining it. After Jamie’s death, she honors his memory by doing the things they dreamed of together. But it’s not just tribute, it’s transformation.
Anna closes the circle by returning to Oxford as a poetry professor and repeating Jamie’s gesture with cake. She’s no longer living someone else’s plan. She’s living deliberately. The final scene, where she tells her students,
“Poetry can be taught, but really it should be lived,”
is a declaration of purpose. Anna isn’t stuck in the past; she’s carrying it with her. This ending doesn’t promise eternal love or a flawless future. Instead, it suggests that loss doesn’t negate love’s value, and that life, even when cut short, can still echo forward.
What does the European tour reveal about Anna’s grief?
My Oxford Year’s European montage is more than a visual send-off. It’s a layered depiction of how memory and imagination collide in the wake of loss. When Anna embarks on the grand tour Jamie had once planned, she initially imagines him by her side, laughing, drinking, kissing. These sequences are bathed in warmth and light, embodying their shared dream.
Gradually, however, Jamie begins to vanish from the frame. The revelation isn’t a twist; it’s a quiet unraveling of denial. By the time Anna is sitting alone on a gondola or staring out at the Temple of Poseidon, the audience understands she’s making the journey alone. These moments expose the emotional weight Anna carries. She’s not running from grief; she’s walking through it.
The decision to show her physically alone but emotionally accompanied underscores how love can leave an imprint without needing to be present. This imagined tour becomes Anna’s way of accepting Jamie’s death without letting it define her future. By finishing the trip solo, she reclaims her agency and healing.
A goodbye that keeps living
My Oxford Year doesn’t end with declarations or grand gestures, but with a quiet, powerful assertion: that love can be brief and still be life-changing. Jamie’s death is not a narrative tragedy but a thematic reckoning. The film challenges the viewer to reconsider what closure looks like, and whether true love is about holding on or letting go. For Anna, and for the audience, the answer isn’t easy. But it is honest.
By embracing ambiguity and emotional honesty, My Oxford Year invites us to ask the harder questions: What do we do with the time we’re given? How do we honor those we’ve lost without losing ourselves? And can love, fleeting, painful, imperfect, still be enough to change a life?
My Oxford Year is available on Netflix.
