“Voicemails for Isabelle” Answers the Call for More Rom Coms
Many people, myself included, have lamented the disappearance of the romantic comedy. In the ’90s and early-aughts, we were graced with some of the best to ever do it: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Nancy Meyers, Queen Latifah, Nora Ephron, Rob Reiner, Gabrielle Union, Idris Elba…we didn’t know how good we had it until the drought came. Thankfully, glimmers of this genre are returning to the small and large screens. Leah McKendrick’s Voicemails for Isabelle is a return to form.
Jill (Zoey Deutch) and Isabelle (Ciara Bravo) are the sort of sisters who exist in their own world. They have a particular way of talking to one another and they never feel more comfortable or at ease than when they’re together. Sadly, because of Isabelle’s cancer diagnosis, she’s often at home while Jill goes to school. The two bond over their love of Top Chef and experiment in the kitchen every chance they get. Eventually, Jill moves to San Francisco to chase her dream of being a chef, leaving Isabelle in Austin, but the two call each other frequently, always aware of what’s happening in each other’s life. When Isabelle passes away unexpectedly, Jill keeps calling and leaving voicemails. She doesn’t know that Isabelle’s old phone number has now been assigned to Wes (Nick Robinson), a realtor, as his new work phone. Through these little glimpses into this mystery woman’s life, Wes finds himself falling in love.
Cr. Allyson Riggs/Netflix © 2026
The characters of Voicemails for Isabelle describe these fated voicemails as something like the plot of You’ve Got Mail. Arguably, though, this film is much closer to Sleepless in Seattle. In that film, Meg Ryan falls in love with Tom Hanks over the radio. He lives in Seattle, she lives in Baltimore, but something about Hanks’ conversations with a radio jockey is impossible for Ryan to ignore. She throws caution to the wind and travels west to find a man she’s never met before. The same happens in Voicemails for Isabelle, but Wes has the benefit of social media. It’s a little easier for him to piece together the identity of Jill with Instagram.
Where Voicemails for Isabelle differs from Sleepless in Seattle in a meaningful way is that the film doesn’t end before the hard conversation has to happen. Meg Ryan never has to tell Tom Hanks that she essentially stalked him across the country and blew up her engagement in the name of chasing a virtual stranger. The lack of that confrontation, however, is part of the charm of Sleepless in Seattle. The same can be said for Voicemails for Isabelle. A key ingredient of the film is the way Wes handles the fallout. It’s so easy to ignore that in favor of a tidy, happy ending, but Voicemails for Isabelle is all the better for allowing this conflict to play out.
Cr. Netflix © 2026
Robinson and Deutch are no strangers to romantic comedies. Robinson played the titular character in Love, Simon, which had the notable honor of being the first major studio-backed film that centered on a gay teenage love story. His boy-next-door charm works perfectly for Wes, a nervous guy who isn’t sure he believes in love until he meets Jill. In 2018, Deutch starred in another Netflix rom com, Set It Up, with Glen Powell. Comedic physicality is one of her strong suits, as is her impeccable timing. Together, Robinson and Deutch are tooth-achingly sweet, the exact dynamism you want from a rom com duo.
What really anchors the film, though, is the relationship between Jill and Isabelle. Even though Isabelle passes away early on, the audience comes to understand the cosmic connection that exists between these two sisters through the voicemails and the early scenes. They’re loving weirdos who depend on one another, and when Isabelle passes, Jill’s feelings of loss are palpable. Voicemails for Isabelle is as much a love letter to romantic relationships as it is to the connection between siblings. As Jill says in her eulogy for Isabelle, how lucky is she that not only was she born in the same time period as Isabelle, but that they were able to call themselves sisters. If Voicemails for Isabelle marks the beginning of a rom com renaissance, we are surely in good hands.
Follow me on BlueSky, Instagram, Letterboxd, TikTok, YouTube, & Facebook. Check out Movies with My Dad, a podcast recorded on the car ride home from the movies and I Think You’ll Hate This, a podcast hosted by two friends who rarely agree.
support your local film critic!
~
support your local film critic! ~
Beyond the Cinerama Dome is run by one perpetually tired film critic
and her anxious emotional support chihuahua named Frankie.
Your kind donation means Frankie doesn’t need to get a job…yet.