In Netflix’s latest romantic comedy, Voicemails for Isabelle, aspiring young baker Jill (Zoey Deutch) lives a demanding, and chaotic life in San Francisco, California. She often shares tales of her life with her younger sister, Isabelle, who lives back home in Austin, Texas, and has cystic fibrosis.

The sisters are extremely close. So, when Isabelle passes away suddenly, Jill begins leaving voicemails to her sister’s phone, unaware that the number now belongs to a young real estate agent named Wes (Nick Robinson).

Fascinated and entertained by Jill’s constant voicemails, Wes refrains from telling Jill that he’s been receiving her voicemails, as he’s enjoying learning about her life. Eventually, he learns that Jill has been leaving these voicemails for her deceased sister. Against the advice of his friends, Wes continues listening to Jill’s voicemails.

After convincing his boss to send him on a work trip to San Francisco, Wes attends an event and encounters Jill. She agrees to go out on a date with him and show him around the city. Still, as the two grow closer, Wes still refrains from telling Jill that he’s been receiving her voicemails for her sister.

Eventually, Jill tries to leave her sister another voicemail; she realizes the phone number now belongs to Wes, and he’s been receiving her voicemails for Isabelle.

After a software update to her phone, Jill is crushed to discover the voicemails Isabelle left for her are gone.

Jill leaves her job and starts a food truck with a former coworker, which becomes a success. When Wes learns about Jill’s new business, he decides to reach back out and update her on his life. The two reconcile, and Jill leaves one final voicemail to her sister’s phone.

The film ends with Jill and Wes dancing to her and her sister’s favorite song, “Dancing On My Own,” by Robyn.

Written and directed by Leah McKendrick, who also stars in the movie as Breeda, Voicemails for Isabelle finds numerous ways to touch the hearts of viewers. The movie starts as more of a tearjerker before transforming into a rom-com.

While the movie hits several of the cliché rom-com boxes, they certainly help tie the movie together.

It’s also great to see Robinson starring in rom-coms again. The last time we saw the handsome actor in a movie of this genre was the 2018 movie, Love, Simon.

Deutch adds spark and spunk to this movie, which tackles themes of love, loss, and grief. The writing includes a strong combination of heart and humor. Audiences can see that, though heartbroken by the loss of her sister, Jill never loses her wit and sassy energy.

“[It was] a really beautiful portrayal of what it feels like to love someone so much and lose them.” – Zoey Deutch

A beautiful thing about this movie is that it shows the love between Isabelle and Jill, and that not all true love is romantic.

“We focus so much in our society on romantic love, and we say, ‘I haven’t found love’ or ‘I’m looking for love’, as though the only type of love that exists is romantic love.” –  Leah McKendrick