Voicemails for Isabelle

Netflix romantic comedies have earned a pretty mixed reputation over the last decade, often feeling disposable or assembled with the bare minimum effort. That’s part of why Voicemails for Isabelle came as a pleasant surprise. The biggest draw is Zoey Deutch, who continues to be one of the most reliable performers working today. Whether she’s appearing in studio films, indie projects, or streaming originals, she commits fully to the material, and once again proves to be the film’s strongest asset.

Deutch plays Jill, an aspiring baker who moves to San Francisco while struggling to process the death of her sister, Isabelle, who lived with cystic fibrosis. To cope with her grief, Jill leaves voicemails on her sister’s old phone number, treating them as a private outlet for thoughts she can’t express anywhere else. Unbeknownst to her, someone is listening. That someone is Wes (Nick Robinson), who becomes captivated by the vulnerability and personality in Jill’s messages, setting the stage for a romance built on a secret that’s destined to surface eventually.

What elevates the film above the average streaming rom-com is its willingness to engage with grief alongside the romance. Deutch does much of the heavy lifting, navigating loss, loneliness, frustration, and eventual heartbreak without ever making Jill feel inconsistent. Robinson provides a steady counterbalance and delivers a few genuinely funny moments of his own. The film occasionally struggles under the weight of its many storylines—romance, grief, career ambitions, relocation, and family trauma all compete for attention—and the early sections can feel a bit scattered as a result.

Once the relationship between Jill and Wes takes center stage, however, the movie finds a much stronger rhythm. The emotional threads begin connecting more naturally, the humor lands more consistently, and the dramatic moments carry greater weight. It’s probably a little too long, and there are scenes that could have been trimmed, but I was never bored. More importantly, Voicemails for Isabelle avoids feeling disposable, which may be the highest compliment I can give a Netflix romantic comedy in 2026. It’s a sincere, surprisingly affecting story about grief, connection, and the unexpected ways people find each other when they need someone most.