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. Grieving the death of her sister, a young woman continues to leave the dead woman confessional voicemails as a coping strategy, all the while unaware that her sister’s number has been reassigned to a stranger in another city; upon listening to them, he falls swiftly in love.
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 there. Which is a shame, because Zoey Deutch and Nick Robinson — two reliably likable actors, alike in age, genre credentials and button-cuteness — do everything in their power to make you believe: By the time their characters, after the requisite period of third-act separation, finally let bygones be bygones and kiss, you really want to be happy for them. But you can’t quite forget that unnerving business with the voicemails.
