The appealing Zoey Deutch is the best reason to watch “Voicemails for Isabelle.” Written and directed by Leah McKendrick (who also plays a small, amusing role), the movie begins as a tear-jerker and morphs into a rom-com with poignant notes. Deutch plays Jill, a pastry chef whose inspiration is her sister, Isabelle, who died recently. Jill has gotten into the habit of calling Isabelle’s phone and pouring out her soul in voice mail messages. Except the number now belongs to Wes (Nick Robinson), a nice real estate agent who is intrigued by Jill’s soliloquies.
So moved that he actually arranges a work trip from his home in Austin to San Francisco, where Jill is part of a group of culinary students being regularly abused by a noxious chef, played by Nick Offerman. Wes contrives to meet Jill at a dating seminar hosted by a pompous podcaster with whom Jill has had a bad date. Then Wes does other deeds reminiscent of the 1999 article in The Onion: “Romantic-Comedy Behavior Gets Real-Life Man Arrested.” At one point a couple of Wes’s soon-to-be-married pals admonish him: “This is like a sick, sick reboot of ‘You’ve Got Mail.’”
One watches the blossoming romance between Wes and Jill with, of course, a certain dread about the inevitable shoe dropping. And Jill certainly does get plenty mad when she finds out what’s up. But she will beam again — because of Deutch, you love to see it — and you can probably guess whose intervention saves the day.
Voicemails for Isabelle Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes. Watch on Netflix.
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