Voicemails for Isabelle isn’t an easy movie to watch if you’re sensitive or faint-hearted, but it’s certainly worth the bit of hope it evokes by the end. I’ll always be the person who believes in divine intervention, signs from the universe, those who’ve passed, whatever you want to call it. The understanding that everything that’s meant to be will find a way, and the right people will cross your path just as you need them most. So, it helps that I don’t have to suspend too much disbelief for the movie to sell all that it wants to.
Pair this detail with the fact that Nick Robinson and Zoey Deutch have the distinguished chemistry necessary for a romance to work, and it becomes a tearful ride I’m ready to see through to the end.
Robinson’s return to rom-coms feels especially perfect with the incredible bounty we currently have with originals and adaptations on our screens. (Off Campus, People We Meet on Vacation, You, Me & Tuscany, and more.) Right from the start, Wes is easy to appreciate, and Robinson layers his every movie with so much heart that it comes across organically. You fully understand why Jill’s voicemails leave him in awe, and you get why he simultaneously feels guilty listening to them. The conflict, the quiet moments, and every little spark that ignites between the two of them afterward make their love story easy to believe in and appreciate.
Grief isn’t always easy to consume in the media, but sometimes, it can be healing. It can be easy to sit with the emotions that it stirs in us and wonder if there really is some sort of great purpose we’re all working towards as we try to honor those in our lives who’ve passed. As a movie, Voicemails for Isabelle helps us sit with the sorrow, and it allows us to take hold of the healing. It’s just as rich with emotions as it is in the romance, proving just how nuanced the genre really is.
When it’s often brushed aside in the literary world as well as in TV and film, for being meaningless smut, here we have another movie that effectively demonstrates just how layered and vulnerable the art of falling in love really is. How it forces people to crack themselves wide open and heal from their pain right alongside the characters. The genre consistently delivers some of the most nuanced topics, and when it’s done right, it reminds everyone just how human it is to want companionship and love.
Zoey Deutch delivers one of her best performances as she conveys Jill’s grief and pain in a manner that makes the movie harrowing to watch. One scene in particular, where she states that all she wants is her sister to come back, is going to haunt me for a while. The actress is no stranger to rom-coms, and Set It Up will always be an all-time favorite of mine, but her work as Jill might just be her best yet.
Voicemails for Isabelle is now streaming on Netflix.
First Featured Image Credit: ©Netflix