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Last week, I had fun detangling the confusion of fake facts that Huck Finn told about King Henry VIII. Tina learned about Maunsell Forts on the British coastline during WWII.

My Oxford Year is a new film on Netflix, based on the book of the same name by Julia Whelan. I enjoyed and reviewed My Oxford Year last November.

The film didn’t get great reviews. In my experience, critics aren’t great judges of how much Anglophiles enjoy stories set in places like Oxford. If you’re attracted to wood-paneled walls and smart characters who quote literature, then I think you’ll enjoy this film.

A few things changed about the main character from the book to the movie. Her new name is Anna De La Vega, giving her a Hispanic-American background that adds some dimension.

The story needs the main character to be a Type-A American with a plan for success. The book had her moon-lighting as a political strategist by phone during her Oxford year. That was fun, but complicated. To streamline things in the film, Anna is taking a gap year after college, having already accepted a future position as a Goldman-Sachs financial analyst.

My Oxford Year sets up as a delightful rom-com for the first half. There’s a big shock, right in the middle. Since I read the book, I knew it was coming. The film, like the book, changes to something else after.

I would say that the book is better, but most readers say that about most books. Since there are so many books and so little time, I also watch a lot of shows instead of reading the books. I wouldn’t discourage that approach, in this case.

Watch My Oxford Year as a film and then listen to Julia Whelan’s other book, Thank You for Listening. Julia Whelan’s primary job is audiobook narrator. Her second novel’s main character is an audiobook narrator. Thank You for Listening is witty and fun and one of the best audiobooks I’ve read. It will never make as good of a movie as it is an audiobook.