‘Voicemails for Isabelle’ Arrives on Netflix With a Surprisingly Heartfelt Premise and a Critics Score Worth Talking About
Netflix has quietly become one of the most reliable homes for the modern romantic comedy, and its latest offering is doing its part to keep that reputation intact. ‘Voicemails for Isabelle’ arrived on the streaming platform on June 19, built around a premise rooted in grief, accidental connection, and the raw, unfiltered honesty that only a voicemail can deliver.
Written and directed by Leah McKendrick, the film follows Jill, an aspiring pastry chef navigating life in San Francisco following the death of her younger sister Isabelle. Jill copes by continuing to leave voicemails for her late sibling, but when Isabelle’s old phone number gets quietly reassigned to Wes, a real estate agent based in Austin, he begins receiving every confessional message and slowly starts to fall for the woman behind them.
Upon its release, ‘Voicemails for Isabelle’ debuted with a 81% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes based on an initial batch of reviews, a figure that could still shift as more assessments arrive. The audience response proved even more enthusiastic, with viewers awarding the film a 94% approval rating from over 100 ratings. Critics responded warmly to the film’s emotional intelligence, its balance of heartache and humor, and its ability to feel genuinely sincere without veering into saccharine territory.
The road to this release was far from straightforward. The project was first announced back in 2019 with Hailee Steinfeld attached to the lead role and Sharon Maguire set to direct, with Sony involved in production. That version never came to fruition, and it was not until 2025 that McKendrick stepped in to write and direct the reimagined story for Netflix, with principal photography getting underway in Vancouver that July.
McKendrick has spoken openly about why the voicemail format felt like the right storytelling vessel for this particular kind of love story. Speaking to Netflix Tudum, she described voicemails as inherently messy, inarticulate, and confessional, calling them a kind of stream of consciousness that always goes a little off the rails. That quality of unfiltered honesty is precisely what the film leans into as its central romantic device.
Starring alongside Zoey Deutch as Jill is Nick Robinson as Wes, with the two actors having known each other for years through mutual friends and shared circles in Los Angeles before finally landing a project together. The ensemble is rounded out by Nick Offerman as Jill’s pompous pastry boss Chef Bastien, Harry Shum Jr. as Wes’s fiercely loyal best friend, Lukas Gage, and Ciara Bravo as the late Isabelle.
For Deutch, the film marks a return to the genre that first established her chemistry with Netflix, building on the goodwill she earned with the beloved 2018 rom-com ‘Set It Up’. Whether ‘Voicemails for Isabelle’ earns that same lasting affection from subscribers remains to be seen, but between a stacked ensemble and an opening reception that skews encouraging, the early signals are pointing in the right direction. Does the idea of falling in love through accidental voicemails sound like your kind of Netflix night, or does the premise still need to win you over?
