Sorry, Wrong Number … Or, Maybe Not
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, but better options are on the horizon. (Note: Anything in bold blue below [or near purple] is a link to something in the above title or the review.)
My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)
However, if you’d like to know more about rationale of my ratings visit this explanatory site.
Here’s the trailer:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size;
activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
WHAT HAPPENS: My time’s been a bit booked this week, so I’ll be concise with my plot recap, knowing you can find more details at this site. Jill Shaw (Zoey Deutch) and her younger sister (always battling some illness so she somewhat lived vicariously through Jill’s actions), Isabelle (Ciara Bravo), grew up in Austin, TX; when Jill reached young adulthood she hoped to fulfill her dream of becoming a baker by moving to San Francisco to apprentice with demanding chef Bastien (Nick Offerman), who delights in browbeating his subordinates. Trying to focus on her intended profession, Jill has no social life, including a nowhere date with coworker Arthur (Lukas Gage) who then becomes her enemy. Everything gets worse when Isabelle dies, although Jill continues her previous practice of phone calls with her sister by leaving voice messages which helps keep Izzy alive in Jill’s mind; however, somehow the number’s been reassigned to Austin real estate agent Wes (Nick Robinson) who becomes fascinated with Jill, wants to meet her, gets the chance when a work assignment takes him to San Francisco where he knows that at a certain day and time she’ll be sitting on a bench overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge so he can “accidently” meet Jill, chat her up.
She resists a relationship yet falls in love with him anyway even as he hesitates to tell her about the voicemails. Wes invites Jill to come to Austin for the wedding of his friends Breeda (McKendrick) and Andy (Harry Shum Jr.). While there she wears his jacket to keep warm (although for Austin at night in a tent implies a different season than what we see), tries to call Isabelle but Wes’ phone rings in his coat pocket so she realizes the truth, storms off. Back in SF there’s a baking competition which Jill should have won, yet Bastien praises Arthur’s mess so Jill again storms off, then gets Isabelle’s college fund from her parents (Gil Bellows, Tanis Dolman), uses the money to start a dessert taco truck which becomes a success. ⇒Wes leaves Jill a message on New Year’s Eve he’s restored Isabelle’s phone number to her, paid for it for a year, invites her to meet him at their favorite taco restaurant, which she does as she’s in Austin for the holiday. Later, he’s in SF with her as they decide to move in together, with Jill leaving one last message about this for her long-gone sister.⇐
SO WHAT? Essentially, this is a mostly-predictable romantic comedy with some heartfelt drama concerning Jill’s grief about her beloved sister so there’s nothing truly all that impactful about it compared to more-heavyweight fare I’ve attended to in recent weeks. (Of my most recent 13 reviews, including this one, only 2 others—Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Ghost War [Andrew Bernstein] and Office Romance [Ol Parker]—have fallen below my prized 4 stars rating, so it’s been an almost-marvelous run since June 10. Will I ever find something this year to get me into the hallowed grounds of 4½ or 5 stars? Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey probably has the next best chance if my local IMAX theater ever gets to a point where all the seats aren’t sold out, even for the 11pm showings, so we’ll see what comes in the next couple of weeks.) In addition to recently bestowing those prized 4 stars lately I’ve also sometimes been noting connections (however tenuous) between my life and what’s happening in these movie plots; that happens again with Voicemails … in that like Jill I spent a good number of years in Austin before finally ending up after some other moves in the San Francisco Bay Area (not the city itself but several others in the region), although I’ve never had any connections with trying to be a baker (the closest I’ve come is buttering an English muffin) or real estate (except for buying a condo [thanks to Nina] which now is harder to insure in CA [Liberty Mutual’s slogan should change to “Only pay for what they might let you buy.”])
Voicemails … has its own connections, most notably in plot allusions to Sleepless in Seattle (Nora Ephron, 1993; starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, both of whom are referenced in … Isabelle) and, especially in my opinion, When Harry Met Sally (Rob Reiner, 1989, written by Ephron; Ryan again, with Billy Crystal) given the New Year’s Eve element (also regarding that one, I’ve always felt it borrowed too much in tone from Woody Allen’s work back then). Well, borrowings aside I can’t say I found much of my life in the Austin scenes, but then I’ve been gone from there for so long I couldn’t even recognize the brief downtown shots with all those skyscrapers I know nothing about; at least San Francisco shots often included the Golden Gate bridge and a more recognizable downtown, but otherwise this could have taken place anywhere. The story’s very familiar as well with spontaneous connection, breakup, and aftermath, but the cast, especially Deutch, is a pleasure to watch, with the whole thing a welcome relief from the Trump-inspired projectile diarrhea I see on the nightly news.
BOTTOM LINE FINAL COMMENTS: Voicemails for Isabelle began streaming on Netflix ($8.99 for a month if you’re not a subscriber, want to explore it) on June 19, 2026, with the CCAL generally in support: Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews are 88%, the Metacritic average score is (notably lower as usual) at 62%. Among the many who liked it even more supportive than me is Liz Declan of Screen Rant (MC 80): "It would have been all too easy for the romcom to just use Isabelle's death to propel a 'real' plot about Jill's romance with Wes forward. Instead, the movie is really a story about sisters, grief, and loss that incorporates love and romance as part of Jill's healing journey. She even makes that point directly (albeit a bit too directly; it's a little on the nose), telling Wes, 'I don't need a man. What I need is my little sister back.' [...] Ultimately, though, what truly makes Voicemails for Isabelle stand out is that it isn't just another romcom that's going to get some views and be forgotten; this movie offers a genuinely meaningful story, in which audiences get to see Jill heal after this brutal loss—and that's what it's really about." In contrast, among those not so impressed we have Guy Lodge of Variety (MC 50) who says: “Is ‘Voicemails’ the least romantic word ever to appear in the title of a romantic comedy? It’s up there, surely. But consider it a suitable warning, since ‘Voicemails for Isabelle’ isn’t terribly romantic either, though it puts much bright-eyed effort into proving otherwise. Writer-director Leah McKendrick’s film challenges itself early, bringing its attractively matched leads together with a meet that couldn’t be less cute […] Like ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ with considerably more boundary violations, it’s a pretty creepy starting point for a tale intended to end on a blissful, wistful sigh. For all its otherwise precision-engineered sweetness, ‘Voicemails for Isabelle’ doesn’t find its way.” I land between these two strong positions.
As always, you choose if this suits your interests as, despite some serious aspects, it’s still basically a romcom. I’ll finish off with my usual Musical Metaphor, this time the Rolling Stones’ "Connection" (1967 Between the Buttons album), sometimes sung in concert by Mick Jagger but also by co-writer Keith Richards (as in this clip from Martin Scorsese’s documentary, Shine a Light [2008], where you get some additional commentary from Keith and bandmate Ron Wood [if you can understand much of what they're saying]) when Mick’s taking a break from his frantic stage persona. As with Jill and Wes (him especially), the goal in these lyrics is “to get back to you” even though “Everything is going in the wrong direction.” Directions from Austin to San Francisco can get confused given the distance involved, but maybe GPS helps (when it doesn't dump you in the water).
SHORT TAKES
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
The Boston Globe’s Odie Henderson’s Top 10 of 2026 so far (I’ve seen 3 of them, agree on those).
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