Voicemails for Isabelle

An aspiring chef (Zoey Deutch) is devastated when her sister dies. To cope with the loss, she rings her sister’s phone and leaves a string of voicemails. Little does she know, the number is now in the hands of a guy (Nick Robinson), who hears the messages and starts to fall for her.

The romance story arc here is predictable. The guy uses the voicemails to find her. They hit it off, but he can’t tell her that he’s been privy to these very personal messages and using them to get information about her. The tension builds, she eventually finds out about it but not through him, she feels betrayed. He somehow makes it up to her despite being a creep etc etc.

What’s interesting about this film however is that it’s not really about the romance. In fact, the guy probably could have not been in it at all and its central themes of losing a loved one, coping with grief and moving on with your life would have still come through. And those elements of it are really well executed and work to subvert the rom-com genre in unexpected ways.

The writing is funny, Zoey Deutch is funny, and the key emotional beats all pay off nicely. Unusually for a Netflix film they have invested in a music budget, and the needle-drop moments all work. It’s like they sold you a rom-com to get you to watch, but actually made a breezy but poignant and well-considered comedy drama.

It’s nice when things that could have been shit, aren’t shit.