Why Netflix’s Latest Hit ‘Voicemails for Isabelle’ Is Much More Than Just a Rom-Com

Voicemails for Isabelle, starring Nick Robinson and Zoey Deutch, debuted at No. 1 on Netflix’s Top 10 Movies list and has held that position since its June 19 release.

While the romantic tension between Jill and Wes drives the plot, the film centers equally on Jill's grief and her bond with Isabelle.

The internet is shedding tears over its raw exploration of grief, sisterhood, and life. The film celebrates sisterhood and the road to recovery following a devastating loss.

Written and directed by Leah McKendrick, the film follows Jill (Deutch), an aspiring pastry chef living in San Francisco, who, after losing her younger sister Isabelle (Ciara Bravo) to cystic fibrosis, copes by continuing to dial her late sister's number and leaving detailed voicemails about her day-to-day life.

What Jill does not know is that the number has been reassigned to Wes (Robinson), an Austin-based real estate agent who begins listening to her messages and unexpectedly falls for the person on the other end.

McKendrick told Variety that the central love story of the film is not the romance between Jill and Wes but the sisterhood between Jill and Isabelle, a relationship shown only briefly on screen before Isabelle's death, after which Jill keeps it alive through the voicemails.

In a conversation with People, McKendrick revealed that the concept grew out of an unexpected moment at a comedy showcase she attended to support her roommate.

A comedian performed a bit about her father leaving long, mundane voicemails about his meals and the weather. The next comedian responded to it from the stage.

"Then the next comedian gets on stage, and she goes, 'It's so nice that your dad calls you. My dad hasn't called me in three years.' And everyone's kind of like, 'Ooh.’ And then she's like, 'He's dead.' I was the only one that laughed,” McKendrick recalled.

“And then it really got the wheels turning, and I thought to myself, it's so funny, this idea of a girl who keeps waiting for her dad to call her back."

McKendrick said she initially toyed with the idea of a daughter waiting for her late father to call, but quickly realized the dynamic did not reflect her own experience.

As an older sister, the theme of sisterhood came more naturally. She said that if she ever lost her sister, she would not simply wait; she would keep calling.

McKendrick said the feeling was not entirely hypothetical. When her sister moved to New York for college, she began sending her “long, rambling voicemails,” the same kind Jill leaves for Isabelle in the film.

"And what a horror story it could be if somebody were to ever hear my most unfiltered self," McKendrick said, reflecting on the film's central conceit. "But you would know that if somebody fell in love with that unfiltered self, it would be real."