Netflix continues in the rom-com business, sometimes getting it right, sometimes getting it wrong.
Despite its No. 1 stature on the streamer’s viewing charts for the past two weeks, I think the higher-profile Jennifer Lopez-Brett Goldstein “romantic” comedy Office Romance failed largely not just because of its tonally off-balance crudeness mixed with a desire to be a traditional rom-com but simply because its two leads had little believable chemistry onscreen. It all seemed manufactured. The streamer got that one wrong.
On the other hand, right on its heels comes Voicemails for Isabelle, a rom-com baked in some of the most predictable tropes imaginable for the genre, yet one that rises above the familiar with the sheer delight of the chemistry between its two stars: the magnetic Zoey Deutch (Nouvelle Vague) and the ever-reliable Nick Robinson (Love, Simon). Here, Netflix gets it right.
Watch on Deadline
Under the guidance of writer-director Leah McKendrick, the premise is all about voicemail mixups as its key device. It bears genuine similarity to 2023’s Love Again (based on the 2016 German film SMS für Dich), which did it with texts and slyly acknowledges a debt to Nora Ephron’s 1998 You’ve Got Mail, which successfully managed to create genuine chemistry between its stars Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan through the device of emails. (That film was an update of the 1939 classic The Shop Around the Corner, which did it with old-fashioned handwritten letters.) So we’ve seen it all before, whether as letters, emails or texts and now voicemails, but it still works, at least in this case. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. All that stuff.
Jill (Deutch) and her sister Isabelle (Ciara Bravo), the latter dealt a raw deal with cystic fibrosis and sickliness since a young child, shared a room and a life, always besties despite those hard times for Isabelle. They also rabidly shared voicemails back and forth, a new age way of communicating when not together. Life, however, gets in the way and finally Isabelle succumbs to her fate, leaving Jill devastated but still hanging on to those voicemails, and now continuing to call Izzy’s cell number and leave more, as if she were still alive to hear them. It is a way of coping with unimaginable loss, a way to never say goodbye.
But here comes the “meet cute” part of the rom-com of it all. Those messages inadvertently are being intercepted by the new inheritor of Izzy’s old phone number, a real estate executive named Wes (Robinson) who finds himself increasingly intrigued and a bit smitten by Jill’s voicemails. He actually sets off to San Francisco on a “work trip” to find her.
Wes is endlessly frustrated by his own dead-end relationships, but he has a hunch that there might be something there. Jill also has gotten herself into bed with a bunch of losers, notably a colleague in her culinary class, the obnoxious and narcissistic Arthur (Lukas Gage), who not only tries to one-up her on the stove but is convinced he is Mr. Right. Wrong. Jill is an aspiring food guru and lover of Top Chef who has put herself through hell in this internship run by the over-the-top Chef Bastien (Nick Offerman), who, for all his lack of subtlety, might as well be Louis Gossett Jr.’s drill sergeant in An Officer and a Gentleman.
This workplace drama is a frequent stop-off for comedic interludes in McKendrick’s screenplay, which mostly focuses on the budding romance of Jill and Wes, the latter never admitting to her that he has been listening to all those voicemails, intensely private and somewhat embarrassing at times if anyone ever discovered what she is doing. But it is all for the love of Izzy, and McKendrick expertly manages the shifting tones between broad comedy, sweet romance and genuine pathos.
As she sits alone on a bench watching the gorgeous skyline of the City by the Bay, Jill even suggests how great it would be if the fantasy guy were to just show up and sit next to her. Lo and behold, in pure Ephronian fashion, Wes does. She tries to resist in every way, but thanks to his homework he knows the exact place she likes to eat, so he uses it to land an informal date on the spot. Still determined to stay away from men, she keeps her distance. But with Wes on a sightseeing bus tour of the city, she becomes smitten just by his pure chutzpah in taking over on the spot from the hapless guide, all culminating in leading a group sing-along to “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” This sequence is worth the price of admission, or in this case subscription. All this time Wes is getting the courage to tell her the truth but never quite makes it there. Any even mild student of the rom-com formula can tell you where this is all going, so I don’t need to continue with any further plot revelations.
But what this charmer of a film has that keeps us engaged, if not originality, is the couple at the center of it all. We root for them, even when it all seems hopeless. Deutch, so great as Jean Seberg in Richard Linklater’s valentine to Godard, Nouvelle Vague, runs the gamut of emotions in this one, a performance that works on every level and a knockout that qualifies her a spot in the rom-com hall of fame alongside Julia Roberts, Kate Hudson and Ryan. Robinson also has great appeal, perfectly balancing a role that might come across as more cynical in other hands, but he nails it. Together they are winning.
Although her role is small, Bravo as the title character creates such a strong and heartbreaking impression with just a few scenes that we totally believe her sister just could not find another way to let her go. Harry Shum Jr. and McKendrick taking on a role in addition to directing, nicely play an engaged couple and friends to Wes who encourage him through his best and worst moments.
San Francisco is, and always has been, the perfect backdrop for romance and continues its stellar reputation as one of the great movie cities.
Producers are Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, Becky Sanderman, Steve Tisch.
Title: Voicemails for Isabelle
Distributor: Netflix
Release date: June 19, 2026 (streaming)
Director-screenwriter: Leah McKendrick
Cast: Zoey Deutch, Nick Robinson, Ciara Bravo, Nick Offerman, Lukas Gage, Harry Shum Jr. , Megan Danso, Toby Sandeman, Gil Bellows, Leah McKendrick, Tanis Dolman
Rating: TV-14
Running time: 1 hr, 58 mins
