{"id":2472,"date":"2026-06-18T23:07:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T23:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2472"},"modified":"2026-06-18T23:07:32","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T23:07:32","slug":"voicemails-for-isabelle-review-zoey-deutch-and-nick-robinson-give-a-hard-sell-romcom-premise-the-hard-sell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2472","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Voicemails for Isabelle\u2019 Review: Zoey Deutch and Nick Robinson Give a Hard-Sell Romcom Premise the Hard Sell"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n<\/p>\n
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\n\tIs \u201cVoicemails\u201d the least romantic word ever to appear in the title of a romantic comedy? It\u2019s up there, surely. But consider it a suitable warning, since \u201cVoicemails for Isabelle\u201d isn\u2019t terribly romantic either, though it puts much bright-eyed effort into proving otherwise. Writer-director Leah McKendrick\u2018s film challenges itself early, bringing its attractively matched leads together with a meet that couldn\u2019t be less cute. Grieving the death of her sister, a young woman continues to leave the dead woman confessional voicemails as a coping strategy, all the while unaware that her sister\u2019s number has been reassigned to a stranger in another city; upon listening to them, he falls swiftly in love. <\/p>\n

Read more Tay Keith, Producer of Travis Scott\u2019s \u2018Sicko Mode\u2019 and Drake\u2019s \u2018Nonstop,\u2019 Dies at 29<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tLike \u201cSleepless in Seattle\u201d with considerably more boundary violations, it\u2019s a pretty creepy starting point for a tale intended to end on a blissful, wistful sigh. For all its otherwise precision-engineered sweetness, \u201cVoicemails for Isabelle\u201d doesn\u2019t find its way there. Which is a shame, because Zoey Deutch and Nick Robinson \u2014 two reliably likable actors, alike in age, genre credentials and button-cuteness \u2014 do everything in their power to make you believe: By the time their characters, after the requisite period of third-act separation, finally let bygones be bygones and kiss, you really want to be happy for them. But you can\u2019t quite forget that unnerving business with the voicemails.<\/p>\n

\n\tShould you ever get distracted by such off-key turns, however, the film is quick to directly remind you which other movies it\u2019s supposed to remind you of. When Wes (Robinson) first tells his best friends (Harry Shum Jr. and McKendrick herself) about the phone-stalking, they pointedly tell him: \u201cTom Hanks is America\u2019s sweetheart, and you are not Tom Hanks.\u201d (Could even Hanks have got away with it? Debatable.) Not long afterwards, a lovestruck Jill (Deutch) says aloud that she feels like Meg Ryan. And near the beginning, as her plucky younger sister Isabelle (Ciara Bravo) faces a hopeless cancer diagnosis, she smilingly says, \u201cThis is not \u2018A Walk to Remember.’\u201d And it\u2019s not, though \u201cVoicemails for Isabelle\u201d does ambitiously work some terminal-disease weepie tropes into its sprightlier romcom formula.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe devoted relationship between the sisters is, in fact, the most credible and affecting element of McKendrick\u2019s script, lending proceedings some earnest emotional weight even after Isabelle departs the scene early on \u2014 leaving Deutch to maintain that connection singlehandedly, via Jill\u2019s frequent, lengthily conversational and sadly one-sided messages, a tricky device that the actress makes seem amiably natural. Jill certainly has a lot to talk about: A culinary school graduate currently working as a downtrodden commis chef to an abusive and egotistical restaurateur (Nick Offerman, sporting a deliberate faux-French accent) in San Francisco, she also has a run of bad dating experiences with, among others, her smarmy colleague Arthur (Lukas Gage) and dishy podcaster Tyler (Toby Sandeman). Career, love life and ego all on the fritz, then: If only someone could hear her vent.<\/p>\n

Read more LISTEN: Variety\u2019s Owen Gleiberman Unpacks Why We Love the \u2018Toy Story\u2019 Franchise: \u2018Some of the Greatest Movies Ever Made About Childhood\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tExcept someone can. Similarly lovelorn Austin realtor Wes at first listens to her redirected messages as an amusing curiosity, before he finds himself getting invested in her plight. Soon enough, he\u2019s looking her up on Instagram and booking a flight to San Francisco so he can engineer an artificially spontaneous encounter. It succeeds in charming her, if not us. Robinson (\u201cLove, Simon\u201d) has a winning puppy-dog quality that he switches on to the max here, but that doesn\u2019t temper Wes\u2019 outlandishly controlling behavior \u2014 if anything, it just makes it seem more deranged. <\/p>\n

\n\tYou certainly buy the wounded fallout when, as she predictably must, Jill happens upon the truth behind her apparent stroke of romantic luck. (Where would this genre be in the 21st century without the telltale phone ping?) The idea that there\u2019s any coming back from that is a far harder sell. And yet, this star pairing sparks enough to make you wish things had been different. Deutch, who headed up one of the first truly viral Netflix romcoms in 2018\u2019s \u201cSet It Up,\u201d has enough straight-talking sincerity as a performer to counter the quirky affectations Jill has been loaded with; Robinson matches her twinkly-but-right-side-of-irksome energy beat for beat. <\/p>\n

\n\tMcKendrick, for her part, directs with smooth, perky proficiency, even if the film\u2019s over-frequent, over-obvious needle drops \u2014 Taylor Swift\u2019s \u201cMarjorie,\u201d with its \u201cwhat died didn\u2019t stay dead\u201d refrain, is applied to awfully on-the-nose effect, though it\u2019s more welcome than Benson Boone\u2019s played-out \u201cBeautiful Things\u201d \u2014 contribute nothing but a certain algorithmic quality to the package. Still, no film in which characters get down repeatedly, vigorously and endearingly badly to Robyn\u2019s \u201cDancing On My Own\u201d is without its moments of truth.<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018UFC Freedom 250\u2019 Averages 8.2 Million Viewers Across U.S. and Latin America<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n

\t\t\u2018Voicemails for Isabelle\u2019 Review: Zoey Deutch and Nick Robinson Give a Hard-Sell Romcom Premise the Hard Sell<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n

\n

\t\tReviewed online, June 18, 2026. Running time: 116 MIN.<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n

    \n
  • \nProduction:<\/strong>
    \nA Netflix presentation from Sony Pictures of an Escape Artists production. Producers: Todd Black, Becky Sanderman, Jason Blumenthal, Steve Tisch. Executive producers: Galen Fletcher, Daniel Bloomfield.\t\t\t<\/li>\n
  • \nCrew:<\/strong>
    \nDirector, screenplay: Leah McKendrick. Camera: Julia Swain. Editors: Lee Haxall, Ryan C. Fill. Music: Este Haim, Amanda Yamate.\t\t\t<\/li>\n
  • \nWith:<\/strong>
    \nZoey Deutch, Nick Robinson, Harry Shum Jr., Leah McKendrick, Toby Sandeman, Lukas Gage, Nick Offerman, Ciara Bravo, Spencer Lord, Tanis Dolman, Gil Bellows. \t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The stars align \u2014 and do Zoey Deutch and Nick Robinson \u2014 in Leah McKendrick’s ‘Voicemails for Isabelle,’ Netflix’s latest bit of date-night-in fodder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2098,25,2099,2100,2101],"class_list":["post-2472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-leah-mckendrick","tag-netflix","tag-nick-robinson","tag-voicemails-for-isabelle","tag-zoey-deutch"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Voicemails for Isabelle\u2019 Review: Zoey Deutch and Nick Robinson Give a Hard-Sell Romcom Premise the Hard Sell - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=2472\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Voicemails for Isabelle\u2019 Review: Zoey Deutch and Nick Robinson Give a Hard-Sell Romcom Premise the Hard Sell - 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