Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
The 2026 romantic drama ‘Voicemails for Isabelle’ probably puts its best emotional foot forward in the opening minutes. The film begins with schoolgirl Jill kissing a boy and then racing home to excitedly tell her little sister, Isabelle, all about it. The twist? Isabelle is bedridden with cancer, and the siblings hilariously squeal with delight over every detail of Jill’s first kiss. We then see glimpses of the sisters growing up together, with Isabelle living vicariously through the endlessly entertaining Jill, until her illness finally claims her life.
The premise for ‘Voicemails for Isabelle’ will remind some of Priyanka Chopra’s 2023 romance ‘Love Again’, where she finds love after sending messages to her dead boyfriend, and here, the protagonist constantly records voicemails for her deceased sister. Although of course ‘Voicemails for Isabelle’ tries being meta and pretty much declares it’s inspired by ‘You’ve Got Mail’, through plenty of references to the Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan romance.
Zoey Deutch plays protagonist Jill, who lives in San Francisco and works under a tyrannical chef, whose only task for her seems to be slicing kumquats, tiny fruits that look like oranges. Losing her sister Isabelle (Ciara Bravo) is crushing, but one of the best things about ‘Voicemails for Isabelle’ is that Jill doesn’t retreat into a shell. Instead, she continues going to work and keeps giving dating in the big city a shot. But Jill being Jill, she doesn’t wallow in self-pity for long and instead exacts a little revenge in a delightfully petty scene.
Since Isabelle is no longer around to hear Jill’s stories, she starts sending voicemails describing her disastrous dates and life in general. All of them are received by Wes (Nick Robinson), a handsome real estate agent living in Austin, who finds them both amusing and moving. Wes’ own dating history is quite colorful, so when he gets dumped by his latest girlfriend, he decides to fly to San Francisco and connect with Jill by staging a ‘meet-cute’. What’s going to happen next?!
Okay, it is a little creepy that Wes is listening to intimate voicemails from a stranger. But then again, if a random person accidentally sent you a steady stream of hilarious dating disasters and juicy life updates, wouldn’t you want the gossip too? You know what, let’s not debate that. Even Wes’ best friends, Andy (Harry Shum Jr.) and Breeda (Leah McKendrick), think he should stop listening to the messages like a stalker and get his act together.
Look, of course ‘Voicemails for Isabelle’ is a formulaic story, so I’m not going to write more than necessary. But both Zoey Deutch and Nick Robinson have the right amount of charm needed to carry a romantic comedy like this, and they share plenty of good on-screen chemistry. It’s a shame Ciara Bravo’s role as Isabelle is too brief, despite the character being both the film’s namesake and the emotional center of Jill’s life. A few more flashbacks of the sisters sharing happy moments together would have made the story’s emotional core a lot stronger.
It took me a while to realize where I knew Robinson from. He reminded me of the broody romantic lead (the one played by Christopher Briney, I Googled it later) from ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’, and a little bit of Leo Woodall from One Day. Basically, he’s got the romantic-hero thing down pat. As it turns out, I’d already seen him in ‘Love, Simon’ and ‘Damsel’, both fun titles to watch.
Zoey Deutch, meanwhile, I remembered from Something from Tiffany’s. Truthfully, I initially confused her with Haley Lu Richardson from ‘Love at First Sight’. The latter is absolutely adorable and a must-watch for romance fans, though the Tiffany’s one was cute too. That’s actually the main reason I decided to stream ‘Voicemails for Isabelle’, despite not being impressed by the trailer. Zoey carries the film as Jill, an exuberant, intelligent, hardworking young woman with dreams and ambitions of her own. Romance isn’t the center of her world, but I love how she’s always open to the possibility of it.
Despite its predictable moments, ‘Voicemails for Isabelle’ a solid one-time watch with scenic photography, a great soundtrack, and a very happy ending. And yes, the climax includes the mandatory rom-com dash to win back a lover, thankfully not to an airport or railway station.
Watch Voicemails for Isabelle on Netflix.
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