There are plenty of tragic romance films that can match the poignant grief of My Oxford Year, leaving a lasting impression with their melancholy final scenes. My Oxford Year is a 2025 Netflix romance drama based on the book of the same name. My Oxford Year makes many changes to the book, including a far more bittersweet ending.
Thus, it joins the legions of other romance movies that don’t wrap up with a neat happy ever after, staying true to life with how sobering their endings can be. Some of the best romance films ever made end in tragedy, and My Oxford Year is only the latest to spur its audiences to think on the fragile nature of life and love.
Warning! Spoilers for My Oxford Year
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My Oxford Year
My Oxford Year centers on a young New York City woman named Anna who travels to London to study abroad for a year at Oxford University’s prestigious poetry program. She enters a whirlwind romance with the dashing Jamie, only to learn the devastating truth of his secrecy, leaving her forever changed in the aftermath of their relationship.
Compared to the book, My Oxford Year has an emotionally devastating ending that doesn’t take the lives of its young lovebirds lightly. As Jamie succumbs to the same affliction that took his brother, Anna learns what it truly is to mourn and heal for the first time in her life, blessed with a year of stinging nostalgia for what could have been.
9
Me Before You
A more recent yet criminally underrated tragic romance, Me Before You stars Emilia Clarke of Game of Thrones cast fame as an optimistic woman who takes a job as a caretaker for Sam Claflin’s wealthy tetrapalegic, suffering from depression caused by his injuries following a nasty accident. The two bond quickly, but it’s clear from the beginning their time is limited.
Despite the joy leading characters Will and Lou are able to manifest, Will has already put an expiration date on his time living with so many limitations. Will eventually calls off their romance in the most final way possible, leaving Lou and his parents heartbroken but ultimately understanding of his morbid decision.
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тιтanic
Anyone even remotely familiar with history will know the tragedy inherent to тιтanic from its very тιтle, but that doesn’t soften the blow when the iceberg finally does hit. The love story across tickets and social classes that Jack and Rose are able to forge is one of the most beloved romances in all cinema, and seeing their chemistry, it’s easy to understand why.
But everything changes when the тιтanic starts going down, with Jack ultimately sacrificing himself so that his lover might live to see tomorrow. Even more sad than his death is the realization that Rose lived her whole life thinking about him, never truly able to move on from the loss she suffered on that fateful voyage.
7
The Fault In Our Stars
The movies based on John Green’s works always know how to tug at the heartstrings, and the most prolific of them all for the sadness of its ending is easily The Fault in Our Stars. Two teenagers suffering from illnesses with bleak prognoses hit it off at a support group, but what would otherwise be an idyllic tale of young love is soured by their circumstances.
Again, The Fault in Our Stars isn’t exactly shocking for its tragic ending, with the writing being on the wall for the outcome of the young couple long before Ansel Elgort’s Gus relapses into a terminal tailspin. But that doesn’t make it hurt any less when the two are forced to say goodbye, cruelly separated by death after far too little time.
6
A Walk To Remember
Eerily similar to The Fault in Our Stars, A Walk to Remember hit many of the same poignant beats years earlier with stunning efficacy. This time around, the leukemia diagnosis of the male lead is buried in the first act, making it hit like a sucker-punch when the truth is revealed.
A classic Nicolas Sparks romance, the sickly sweetness of Mandy Moore’s Jamie and Shane West’s Landon is almost too much to bear when nothing is overtly going wrong. The two at least get more time together and even get to enjoy eloping before the former pᴀsses away, but this arguably makes the heartache even more painful.
5
Brokeback Mountain
Fondly remembered as one of the first and still greatest LGBTQ+ romance films ever made, Brokeback Mountain explores the pain of longing through multiple lenses. Cowboys Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) are forced to go their separate ways, marrying women for the sake of appearances despite a clear, desperate connection.
If that weren’t bad enough, the film’s downer ending sees Jack die in an accident, something Ennis imagines as a vicious hate crime due to his fears. It’s rare for a death in a romance film to be depicted as this violent, illustrating the disheartening reality many queer people have faced throughout history.
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Love Story
Though the premise and even тιтle of Love Story may seem trite by today’s standards, the 1970 film was among the first to establish many long-held traditions in the tragic romance subgenre. The familiar premise sees a man and a woman falling in love over a vast gulf in social class, overcoming it only for one of them to be cruelly taken by cancer.
It’s hard to underestimate just how vital Love Story was in laying the groundwork for the countless imitators that have come since. The movie might not be as good as the book it was based on, but it’s still very difficult to see it through to the end with dry eyes.
3
Remember Me
Though not strictly a romance, as the film explores multiple relationships both familial and platonic, Remember Me is quietly one of Robert Pattinson’s best heartthrob performances. The coming-of-age tale posits Pattinson as a troubled young man with a strained relationship with his father trying to make things work in a sudden, unexpected romance.
Just as it seems things are evening out for the young man’s love life and family, Remember Me pulls out one of the most unbelievable twist endings ever filmed as the camera zooms out to reveal him standing in the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. A life lost in an infamous terrorist attack is one of the bleakest ends to a touching romance ever.
2
The Notebook
One of the most iconic romance movies of all time, The Notebook is essentially the template for the modern romance and the modern tragedy. Against the scorching backdrop of summer in the American South in the year 1940, a pᴀssionate, yet messy love story slowly unfolds between a Southern belle and a working-class man that spans decades.
In the end, it’s revealed that the story’s framing device is an older version of Noah retelling Ally the story of their relationship, the latter having forgotten everything due to a struggle with dementia. Though she briefly returns in a small moment of clarity, in the end, Noah and Ally pᴀss away side by side, with Ally spending her last days hardly aware of her surroundings.
1
Atonement
Another period romance, Joe Wright’s Atonement centers on the bitterly unfulfilled romantic desire between James McAvoy’s Robbie and Keira Knightley’s Cecelia. The two orbit one another for a while, but are never able to manifest their feelings fully in a relationship due to a lie told by Cecelia’s sister.
By the time the deception is revealed, it’s too late, as Robbie is drafted to war and dies of sickness while Cecelia perishes in a bombing run. Killing off not one, but both of its lead couple, Atonement is one of the few older tragic romances to outdo the painful finale of My Oxford Year.
