Aahana Swrup
Iain Morris’ Netflix rom-com ‘My Oxford Year’ tells a soul-stirring tale of love and loss as experienced in the midst of a whirlwind coming-of-age adventure. It revolves around the protagonist Anna De La Vega, an impassioned American student who gets the chance to fulfill her childhood dreams of studying poetry at the University of Oxford in England. However, her best-laid plans threaten to come undone when she becomes entangled in something not quite committed but not quite casual with the campus heartthrob, Jamie Davenport. Apparently, the latter, a DPhil student subbing in as the poetry professor, has a secret to keep that has the potential of changing Anna’s life forever, for better or for worse. The story transports the audience into the lauded premises of the historic University, Oxford, where lessons are learnt, not just in academics but also in life.
My Oxford Year is Inspired by Julia Whelan’s Bestseller Novel
‘My Oxford Year’ is inspired by Julia Whelan’s eponymous debut novel, translating the pages of the bittersweet love story for the screen. Screenwriters Melissa Osborne and Allison Burnett adapted the literary work into a screenplay that takes some divergences from its source material but remains true to its predecessor’s spirit. The novel, published in 2018, came about while Whelan was working on a screenplay for a different project. Before foraying into the world of writing, the author was steadfast in her pursuit of an acting career, collecting roles on titles like ‘Castle,’ ‘NCIS: Los Angeles,’ ‘The Closer,’ and more. Around the same time, she was hired to work on a screenplay, originally penned by Allison Burnett. Inevitably, the author ended up falling in love with the story.
However, during the development project, it soon became evident that the story Whelan was working on was too grand to fit into a cinematic endeavor. Fortunately enough, she was offered the prospect of penning the story into a novel. Thus, ‘My Oxford Year,’ her earliest venture as a novelist, came about. The story itself was also particularly close to home for Whelan, who had spent a year at Oxford herself. As a result, she had an intimate point of relatability with her book’s heroine, Ella Durran, who starts off the story as a fish-out-of-water American student at an all-encompassing English university. Furthermore, the author also used other aspects of her personal experience to chisel out the foundation of Ella and the secondary protagonist, Jamie’s tale.
In a conversation with Splash Magazine, the author discussed her connection with the University and how it contributed to informing the authenticity of her novel. “(So,) I had this very integrated, immersive experience, not just in the city but in the University and in college life. Consequently, it’s as vivid to me as the time I spent at my undergraduate institution. I wanted to convey that love for the city — and for the institution and its history — in book form.” While Whelan’s real-life experiences certainly added a level of credibility to her book’s Oxford-centered narrative, the emotional themes within the story also play a huge part in underlining its sense of realism. At its core, Ella’s love story with Jamie remains a narrative about the importance of choice in love and life. Even though the Netflix film renames the literary character to Anna and changes up a few of her characteristics, it stays faithful to the same emotional nucleus, effectively retaining its counterpart’s authentic storytelling. Furthermore, it all ties up with Burnett’s original screenplay that informed the creation of Whelan’s book.
My Oxford Year Retains Notable Differences From Its Bookish Counterpart
When it comes to differences, Ella’s on-screen translation as Anna isn’t the only significant creative liberty that ‘My Oxford Year’ equips in creating a story inspired by Julia Whelan’s novel. The film comes with its own points of real-life connection that add to its own brand of realism and relatability. Marty Bowen, a producer on the project, shared a close connection to the story, which mirrors his own life experiences. During his own year at the University, Bowen also had a short-lived but meaningful whirlwind romance. “It was a finite period of time that we were going to be there, like in the story,” The producer told Netflix.
Bowen further added, “But it made the relationship that much more heightened because there was less pressure about where it was going to go. I actually think it’s those experiences that we take for granted. They become so much more important to you as memories of your life.” Perhaps for the same reason, the film excels at establishing the themes of the intertwining nature of love and loss as portrayed by Anna and Jamie’s doomed romance. However, while this was a central aspect of Whelan’s novel, the literary work also delved into other themes. For instance, its protagonist, Ella, had a significant storyline revolving around her propensity for politics, which is the very thing that brings her to Oxford.
Nonetheless, in the film, Ella’s narrative is swapped out for Anna’s storyline revolving around a scholarship and a planned future as a financial analyst with a career on Wall Street. Additionally, Anna lacks the emotional turmoil of Ella’s character, who struggled with the recent loss of her father from her life. In a similar vein, the on-screen Jamie sheds his literary counterpart’s dreams of authorship in favor of a more fleshed-out relationship with teaching poetry. These small divergences lead to significant differences between the characters in Whelan’s novel and their on-screen counterparts. Perhaps these creative differences are remnants of elements from Allison Burnett’s original screenplay that laid down the foundation for the novelization. Either way, these points of dissimilarity establish the film’s unique identity outside of its literary inspirations. Ultimately, such liberties are taken in service of an overarching plot that, above all, strives to impart a message about seizing each moment to create one’s own version of forever.
Read More: Where was My Oxford Year Filmed? All Shooting Locations
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