![\"Voicemails](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Voicemails-For-Isabelle-Body.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
The set-up for McKendrick\u2019s sophomore feature, which follows the multi-hyphenate\u2019s\u00a0self-starring 2023 directorial debut\u00a0Scrambled, is, it must be said, more than a little eyebrow-raising on the face of it. Zoey Deutch stars as Jill, an up-and-coming baker living in San Francisco who \u2014 when not being subjected to the workplace outbursts of her pompous boss Chef Bastien (a dependably chuckle-worthy Nick Offerman) or the bedroom outbursts of her latest dates \u2014 is relaying said encounters to her\u00a0cystic\u00a0fibrosis-stricken sister Isabelle over voicemail. When tragedy \u2014 and an unfortunate reassigned number \u2014 strikes,\u00a0however, doe-eyed Texan real-estate agent Wes (the aforementioned, ever-youthful\u00a0Robinson) finds himself receiving Jill\u2019s confessional recordings.<\/p>\n
As soon as Deutch and Robinson share the frame, the atavistic desire to see these two together overrides all logic systems<\/p>\n
Now because this is a romcom, which is time and again a realm reserved exclusively for irrational decision-makers, rather than disconnecting the phone and carrying on with his life, Wes finds himself invested in Jill\u2019s\u00a0love life, before long landing himself in San Fran to set up a (digitally aided-and-abetted) date with destiny. Which, as you can\u00a0probably figure\u00a0out, is a great idea \u2014 until\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0really not\u00a0a great idea.<\/p>\n
The thing about\u00a0Voicemails\u00a0For\u00a0Isabelle\u00a0is that\u00a0yes, its set-up is\u00a0perhaps just\u00a0a little bit\u00a0icky. And\u00a0yes, there\u00a0are\u00a0at least a dozen occasions where you can\u2019t help but think hair-sweeping, mild-mannered would-be lothario Wes could do himself \u2014 and Jill \u2014 a lot of\u00a0favours\u00a0by just fessing up to the whole voicemail thing that\u00a0obviously\u00a0has to\u00a0come out sooner or later.\u00a0And also\u00a0yes, just because Will\u2019s lovable soon-to-be-wed\u00a0pals\u00a0Andy (Harry Shum Jr.) and Breeda (McKendrick) repeatedly remind him what\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0doing is giving big red-flag\u00a0energy,\u00a0that\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0make it any less\u00a0iffy. But\u00a0here\u2019s\u00a0the thing: the second Wes and Jill\u00a0meet,\u00a0you just\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0care about any of that anymore.<\/p>\n
![\"Voicemails](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Voicemails-For-Isabelle-Review.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
As soon as Deutch and Robinson share the frame\u00a0\u2014\u00a0the movie\u2019s Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan aspirations literally spelled out for us, although\u00a0McKendrick\u2019s alternately zinger-filled and touching writing so winningly evokes Nora Ephron that overt references to her movie, while cute, really aren\u2019t needed at all\u00a0\u2014\u00a0the atavistic desire to see these two together, to stay plugged into the terawatt electricity surging through every one of his winsome,\u00a0Love, Simon<\/a>\u00a0honed\u00a0looks and every one of her ear-to-ear, bulb-bright smiles, overrides all logic systems. And as the duo inevitably fall for one another, their open wounds healing just a little more with each bus tour they take and eminently\u00a0nommable-looking\u00a0pud\u00a0they share \u2014 his sensitivity and her strength pulling them both out of the dark, allowing them to let down their walls \u2014 the film opens up, goes deep (steady on!), and becomes something entirely its own. Be prepared for the best \u201ceating something and instantly being taken back to a very poignant childhood memory\u201d\u00a0scene\u00a0this side of\u00a0Ratatouille<\/a>, and an exquisitely deployed needle drop of deep-cut Taylor Swift ballad ‘Marjorie’ that keys into the film’s emotional frequency almost preternaturally well.<\/p>\n As a\u00a0romcom\u00a0with a wacky premise,\u00a0Voicemails\u00a0For\u00a0Isabelle\u00a0is\u00a0charming, and\u00a0sweet, and lovely enough as it is. But as the story of two wayward souls who\u2019ve been searching for their loved-ones-lost in all they see and do for so long that the possibility of embracing new love \u2014 of letting the love that shaped them help make something new, free of guilt \u2014 is as terrifying as it is exciting, this has levels to it that you forget the\u00a0cosy\u00a0trappings of the genre can create space for. That Leah McKendrick has been able to make something like this, that\u2019s\u00a0also\u00a0sex-positive,\u00a0also\u00a0feminist in its formulation,\u00a0and\u00a0also\u00a0manages to be both romantic and comedic in\u00a0roughly equal\u00a0measure is\u00a0incredibly refreshing. And frankly, any movie that factors a flash-mob dance-along to Robyn\u2019s \u2018Dancing\u00a0On\u00a0My Own\u2019 into its emotional climax is already\u00a0a must-see. So,\u00a0what are you waiting for?<\/p>\n The romcom comeback is well and truly on \u2014 and Voicemails For Isabelle leads the way. Nick Robinson and Zoey Deutch\u2019s palpable on-screen chemistry is enough to make even the coldest of hearts believe in love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jill (Zoey Deutch) is an aspiring baker who leaves voicemails for her dead sister detailing her chaotic life…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":760338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,134,344],"class_list":["post-760337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=760337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/760338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}