Is Voicemails for Isabelle the Best Netflix Rom-Com in Years or Just a Little Bit Unhinged?
Okay so Netflix dropped a new rom-com last week and the internet has been emotionally compromised ever since. We are talking full ugly cry reports across TikTok, X, and every group chat that has at least one person who watches everything on Netflix the day it drops. That person is sending the link. The rest of you are about to lose it. This is your warning.
What Is Voicemails for Isabelle About?
Voicemails for Isabelle dropped on Netflix on June 19 and follows Jill, played by Zoey Deutch, who deals with losing her sister Isabelle by leaving voicemails on her old number.
What Jill does not know is that the number has been reassigned to Wes, a real estate agent in Austin, Texas, played by Nick Robinson, who starts falling in love with her through the messages alone.
The film is written and directed by Leah McKendrick, who also has a role in it, and also stars Nick Offerman, Harry Shum Jr., and Lukas Gage.
Is Voicemails for Isabelle Creepy or Cute?
This is genuinely the conversation the internet is having right now. On one side you have people saying it is the most romantic concept they have ever heard and they want someone to love them the way Wes loves voicemail Jill.
On the other side you have people pointing out that this man is listening to deeply personal messages intended for a dead woman, falling in love with a stranger’s grief, and saying nothing about it for a fairly long period of time.
One critic put it bluntly, calling it “tone-deaf” and accusing the film of using a dead sister’s memory as a plot device to woo her sibling without consequence. That is not an unfair read.
But here is the thing. Zoey Deutch carries the grief of this character quietly and constantly, adding real weight to what could have been pure plot mechanics. And the chemistry between her and Robinson is regularly described as sparkling, natural, and surprisingly convincing.
You root for them even when you are sitting there going wait, should I be rooting for this?
The Reviews for Voicemails for Isabelle
The film currently holds an 84% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and an audience score of 91%, with some trackers putting the audience score even higher at 94% based on early viewer data.
That puts it ahead of Netflix’s other number one romance of 2026, the Emily Henry adaptation People We Meet on Vacation, and ahead of every current summer blockbuster except Toy Story 5. Those are not small numbers for a streaming rom-com.
One audience reviewer wrote:
“At the end, it had me wishing that my sisters love me enough to leave me voicemails after I’m gone because who doesn’t want to be loved that much?”
That sentence alone should tell you everything about the emotional experience you are signing up for.
Fiona’s Verdict
Cute. Firmly in the cute category. Yes the premise requires you to suspend a small amount of judgment about consent and timing and the ethics of falling in love with someone’s private grief.
But the formula works because the two leads are genuinely wonderful together and the film has what RogerEbert.com called “a high emotional IQ and a real sense of the lunacy that makes life hilarious even when we are hurting.” That is the whole thing right there.
Clear your evening. Charge your phone so you can text people about it halfway through. Keep tissues within arm’s reach. You have been warned.
