Voicemails for Isabelle | Film Review

 

When Jill's (Zoey Deutch) voicemails to her late sister are redirected to a stranger (Nick Robinson), he begins to fall in love with her by listening to her stories.

I really loved the premise of this film, so I was looking forward to seeing it.

Thankfully, I loved the movie!

Considering we only got to see the sisters together for the first 10 minutes of the film, it does a really good job of building a believable friendship and connection that carries through the entire movie. If anything, it would have been nice to see more of them together.

In terms of being a rom-com, it's more romantic than comedic, but it definitely has fun rom-com vibes throughout.

Deutch and Robinson have great chemistry and you want to root for them. That being said, it's really hard to tell this story without having the male character come across as slightly creepy for the decisions he makes. It's a shame because he's a really likeable character, but even if you can rationalise some of his decisions, it's hard to get away from the weirdness of it all.

I would have liked there to be more voicemails before they actually met, particularly ones with a bit more substance that would have made it easier to believe that he would fall in love with her through those messages.

And with that, I also wished that the characters and their relationship had more time to develop. In particular, there were mentions of trauma, but this wasn't explored as deeply as it could have been, which left things feeling left on the surface.

That said, the actors do a great job with their characters, and it's a really sweet story. The ending in particular was so great.

The soundtrack was unexpectedly great, and definitely got me re-listening to some old favourites.

Overall, despite the flaws, I thought the movie was great. It was emotional, powerful and had two really lovely relationships at the centre. I'd definitely recommend this one!

8/10