Warning: Major spoilers ahead for “My Oxford Year.”
“My Oxford Year,” the movie adaptation of Julia Whelan’s 2018 novel, ends with a shocking twist — and star Sofia Carson broke it down for TODAY.com.
Carson both executive produced and starred in the film, released Aug. 1 on Netflix. The movie follows Carson’s character Anna as she moves to Oxford to study poetry for a year at the famous university.
Anna has planned her entire life out, but, along the way, she unexpectedly falls head over heels with her charming professor, Jamie (Corey Mylchreest).
Their relationship seems perfect at first. Then comes a complication. Anna learns that Jamie has multiple myeloma, the same blood cancer his brother died from years prior.
Jamie is determined to make the most of his final months instead of spending them in a hospital bed. Ignoring his parents’ urges, Jamie stops treatment, and he and Anna set out to squeeze as many memories as possible out of the time they have left.
“She walks into the film believing that living deliberately means planning every second of her life, and she walks away from this movie such a transformed person,” Carson tells TODAY.com of Anna’s journey.
Midway through the film, Anna makes a decision that temporarily halts her relationship with Jamie. While she has a job lined up at Goldman Sachs once her year at Oxford finishes, she tells Jamie she wants to give it up so she can stay with him. Jamie thinks she is making a mistake by throwing away her future, and the pair separates.
However, the duo reconciles when Anna convinces Jamie that her only future is with him. The next morning, Anna wakes up to find Jamie lying unconscious in bed. They rush to the hospital, and Jamie learns he has a severe case of pneumonia. In Jamie’s hospital room, they discuss a big trip to visit all the European sights that Jamie wants Anna to see.
During the film’s final sequences, Anna and Jamie travel Europe, visiting cities like Paris, Venice and Amsterdam. It seems like Jamie has recovered — but it turns out these memories only belong to Anna. Jamie has already died, and she is on the adventure alone, imagining what it would be like if Jamie were with her.
Carson says that this heartbreaking moment in the film is captured by one of the movie’s many literary references.
“I always go back to one of the authors that we quote often. Alfred Tennyson once said, ‘It’s better to have loved than lost than never to have loved at all,” Carson says. “That is such a timeless and profound truth that I think we’re reminded of in this story.”
Carson added that dealing with the film’s profound subject matter was a “beautiful challenge.” One of her favorite parts of the film was how they handled its tragic ending with comedy.
“It was so important that comedy was the thing that always grounded our film. I think in times of darkness and loss, comedy is often how we cope,” Carson says. “Comedy is what makes even the deepest moments just hit even harder.”
Another literary reference that stuck with Carson was the Emily Dickinson she set as Anna’s lock screen: “Forever is composed of now.”
“Life exists in the messiness, in the moments, in the now. All we have is a succession of moments,” Carson says. “I love ‘forever is composed of now.’ I always go back to that.”
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