Jill (Zoey Deutch) is a young woman who spends her days wishing that she could realise her dreams of becoming a chef in her own establishment and spends numerous evenings navigating her way through many disastrous dates. She copes with her many disappointments by leaving voicemails for Isabelle, her deceased younger sister. Unbeknownst to Jill, Isabelle's number has been repurposed, which means that Wes (Nick Robinson) is receiving all of her calls to his new work phone. Romance, in a very complicated way, inevitably ensues.
Written and directed by Leah McKendrick, who also gives herself a solid supporting role, Voicemails For Isabelle is manipulative, predictable, and built on a central premise that makes the actions of our wannabe-male suitor even creepier than usual. It's also absolutely top-drawer rom-com stuff, with a great balance of laughs and sweetness, helped by a couple of recurring elements that show the bonds that will never be broken between Jill and Isabelle. It also does such a good job of showcasing a certain Robyn song that I am sure that will be returning to charts soon, thanks to the way streaming plays are counted when these things are calculated nowadays.
Both leads are very easy to like, which is another big plus. Deutch is better here than she has been in anything else I've seen her in (although that may just be due to me not seeing her best work) and Robinson does well enough to stay cute and well-behaved while dealing with the problematic nature of how he has fallen in love with a woman who doesn't know how much of her life he has been able to hear. McKendrick and Harry Shum Jr. are very enjoyable as friends and about-to-be-newlyweds who are also best friends with our male lead, and very quick to point out how wrong and creepy his behaviour is when he confesses to what is going on, and there are fun supporting roles for Toby Sandeman, Lukas Gage, and Nick Offerman, all playing decidedly awful men who make Jill's life much harder than it needs to be. Megan Danso seems to be playing someone determined to remain silently suffering and stoic throughout, but she benefits from the fact that her character has a believable enough transformation just in time for the final act.
While using tech at the heart of the premise, McKendrick is very smart in how she presents that as just one small way in which people can stay connected. There are so many others presented throughout the film, from that aforementioned pop song to food, from nicknames to similar past experiences that shaped who you are today, and they're all bundled together to show how people hold on to what they treasure above all else, but also how people can know when to let something go now that it has done the job of helping to define them as they continue to move forward through life.
It's hard to think of anyone not getting some joy from this, although the kind of people who point-blank refuse to acknowledge any of their own feelings will want to stay away. It's both sweet and spicy, but not too spicy, there are a lot of very funny gags littered throughout the screenplay, and McKendrick puts in a lot of very hard work to ensure that there's a good enough sense of redemption and penitence before the standard "running against the clock to hopefully reunite" finale. I was going to say that I enjoyed this despite knowing how every moment was going to play out, but there were also one or two surprises that allow it to pretend to be less formulaic and predictable than it ultimately is.
I really wasn't looking forward to this, the title and the marketing imagery didn't instil me with great confidence, but I would happily rewatch it right now.
7/10
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