Every rom-com needs a great love story. And while Netflix’s newest film “Voicemails for Isabelle,” released June 19, certainly doesn’t lack that, its greatest relationship isn’t the romance that drives the plot but instead a story-defining bond between sisters.
The film follows Jill (Zoey Deutch), a young chef living in San Francisco. When her younger sister, Isabelle (Ciara Bravo), dies due to complications from cystic fibrosis, Jill begins leaving her voicemails not realizing that Wes (Nick Robinson), an Austin-based real estate agent, is on the other end receiving them after Isabelle’s phone number is assigned to him.
Jill is a lot of things – sarcastic, funny, chaotic when it comes to her love life – but above all else she is a sister and this movie tries to get that point across from the very beginning.
Viewers don’t see a glimpse of Wes, Jill’s love interest, until nearly 17 minutes in. Instead, it focuses that time on Jill and Isabelle’s relationship as they grow up together and how Jill later copes with her grief.
It’s these scenes that immediately drew me into the film and ultimately became what I thought was the film’s strongest section.
I’m not one to cry during movies, and I certainly don’t start tearing up before a film’s first 20 minutes, but “Voicemails for Isabelle” had me sobbing immediately.
Deutch and Bravo, and their child counterparts Alice Comer as young Jill and Iris Everly as young Isabelle, portray the sister's chemistry and rapport perfectly. As the two grow up, the prologue shows both the trials of growing up with a sick sibling, and more importantly how it feels to grow up with your best friend.
Even after Isabelle dies, their loving relationship remains at the heart of this film, often pulling focus away from the romantic storyline.
While some may think that this diversion defeats the genre’s purpose, for “Voicemails for Isabelle” it serves as one of the best plot devices. And, unfortunately, Wes and Jill’s romance often felt like a detriment to my enjoyment more than anything else.
My initial unease started the second Wes entered my screen. Don’t get me wrong, like many who grew up watching Robinson’s 2010s discography like “Everything, Everything” or “Love, Simon,” I am not unaware of Robinson’s typical charm and likability. In fact, Robinson plays Wes great, has stellar chemistry with Deutch, and by the end I was genuinely rooting for him.
But after watching this incredibly heartfelt story of sisterhood, Wes coming in as a nonchalant, slightly cynical real estate agent felt like a jarring change. For me, when you start a character off on the wrong foot, it’s going to take a minute for them to get back in my good graces.
Luckily enough, Wes’ completely unlikeable stint is short lived and his slight tendency to come across as shady is abandoned entirely, but this positive change only begins when he invades Jill’s privacy and listens to her voicemails.
If you’ve seen “You’ve Got Mail,” this part of the story should feel familiar. While the plot is not directly identical to the 1998 rom-com starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, there was a clear inspiration taken, with characters in the movie drawing direct comparison between the two stories. Essentially Wes falls in love with her through the voicemails she leaves and, after going to find her in San Francisco, the two begin dating without her know he’s been listening to these messages for months.
What differentiates the two films is what makes this plot’s first part that much creepier. While Ryan’s Kathleen Kelly knew she was talking to a real person despite not knowing their identity, Jill has no idea that someone has been listening to these private messages. It’s as if a stranger came in and read your diary without permission; that person may have been doing it with the best intentions, but what they read still wasn’t for them.
Losing someone can be one of the most difficult things a person will go through and no matter how much Wes loves Jill, that doesn’t change the fact that he invaded her mourning process. Furthermore, he takes her gripes about wanting someone who truly loves her as a reason to go find her, rather than understanding what the messages are really about: needing her sister back.
I have never felt so relieved for the big dramatic climax of a rom-com as I did when Jill finally found out that Wes had been listening to these voicemails. Wes needed to finally understand that Jill’s grieving process and time spent working on herself were the two most important thing to become infinitely more likeable.
But the fact of the matter is that “Voicemails for Isabelle” is not about Wes. It’s about love, sisterhood and holding onto the people we care about. It’s about Jill and her undying devotion to her sister, and it’s a part that Deutch plays brilliantly.
While “Voicemails for Isabelle” might not be my first recommendation if you are looking for a stereotypical rom-com, I would wholeheartedly suggest it if you are looking for something much deeper. A love story doesn’t have to just mean romance; love comes in so many forms, and “Voicemails for Isabelle” shows every side of that.
