A new movie on Netflix has taken the romcom loving community by storm, currently sitting at an 87% on Rotten Tomatoes. Voicemails for Isabelle tells the story of grieving Jenn, sister of Isabelle, who has recently passed after a lengthy battle with cystic fibrosis. Jenn continues to leave voicemails for her deceased sister as a way to grieve, but unknowingly has actually been leaving voicemails on the new work phone for Wes, a realtor in Austin, Texas. It’s a romcom so take a wild guess as to what happens next. But something that was echoed a lot when the movie dropped was that the plot of Voicemails for Isabelle was similar to a movie that came out three years prior called Love Again.
Love Again follows Mira who lost her long-term boyfriend John to a drunk driving accident, and 2 years later, starts texting him as a way to heal and be able to talk to him, even if it’s just one sided. However again, unknowing to the protagonist, the phone number has been reassigned to the new work phone of our hunky leading man, Rob. This one’s all set to the soundtrack of the music of Céline Dion, who actually plays a fictional version of herself in the movie. So I decided I better sit down and watch these both, then form my own opinion from there. I watched Love Again first, as it did come out first.
Love Again had the feel of a Hallmark movie with a big budget, which I’m not knocking I love Hallmark movies. All the actors were great in the movie too, so many British actors doing American accents! I just feel like they weren’t given a whole lot to work with. The continual product placement, as well, just kinda put me off. First it was Skittles, then it was Bumble, and then basically trying to sell Celine Dion and her music. However, the movie definitely had its funny moments, Céline Dion is a treasure and totally has comedic chops, plus a hilarious cameo to top it off.
Voicemails for Isabelle does have a similar plot but that’s where similarities end, honestly. It has so many hilarious scenes, a great supporting cast (hello Nick Offerman and Harry Shum Jr.), the leads have great chemistry, and a lot of brightness and heart. Since the runtime is a bit longer than the other movie, I did find myself watching certain scenes saying, “Eh, they could have cut that for time.” And yes, there was product placement in this one too, but it was just a Breyers ice cream carton on a counter in one scene. Voicemails for Isabelle is an endearing watch, I was full-on crying at the end, and it’s true romcom that adds something new to the genre.
As you can tell, both movies have their strengths and weaknesses. I will say that for both of the movies, they had me yelling at the TV, “Tell her, you coward!” more than once. Love Again is more PG/PG-13, while Voicemails for Isabelle walks the line between PG-13 and R (just based on coarse language). I did like Voicemails for Isabelle just a bit more, as I’ve never been a huge Céline Dion fan, but they’re both good watches in their own ways.
You can stream Love Again and Voicemails for Isabelle on Netflix.
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