This romcom is the modern You've Got Mail

If there's something I can really enjoy, it's a romcom. And I'm not talking about a Hallmark movie where you know from the first moment that the workaholic lawyer is going to fall for the farmer with a troubled past. I'm talking about a film that feels like stepping into a bubble, where two people end up together despite all sorts of obstacles. But yes: where do you find fantastic romantic comedies nowadays in this romcom epidemic? On Netflix, because there's a new one that secretly has a lot in common with one of my favorite classics: You’ve Got Mail. So pay attention, because Voicemails for Isabelle you absolutely want to see. It's beautiful, sad, and oh so good.

No Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks but Zoey Deutch and Nick Robinson

Yes, you heard that right: this film is already being called the modern version of You’ve Got Mail . Why? Because it’s about two people who don’t get to know each other physically. Only now it’s not about email, but about the phone. That sounds like a fairy tale, but the film doesn’t start that way. We don’t dive into a love story, but into a grieving process. We follow Jill (Zoey Deutch, a.k.a. the queen of modern romcoms), who leaves voicemails for her deceased sister. On the other side of the country lives Wes (Nick Robinson), who gets a new phone number. And how coincidental: it turns out to be the old number of Jill's sister. He is suddenly flooded with voicemail messages from a woman he doesn’t know. After listening to all her stories for a while, Wes starts to develop feelings for Jill, but he has one problem: he doesn’t know her at all. This sends Wes on a quest through San Francisco to find Jill. Does that sound familiar? Exactly.

What makes this romcom different

Although this film has some similarities to that New York film, I can assure you that you’re not going to watch a weak remake. Jill is not a bookstore owner, but a chef. And Wes is not an enemy trying to shut down her restaurant; he’s a realtor. So we don’t get an enemies-to-lovers story, but a story that feels so real that you could experience it yourself. Everything Jill goes through is so relatable. How she tries to keep her career afloat while missing her sister. Picking up your life isn’t as easy as you’d think, especially when you work for a difficult top chef. And Wes is also not a perfect prince on a white horse when he runs into Jill and pretends he doesn’t know her.

This story? It’s real. Kind of.

If you’re wondering why Voicemails for Isabelle works so well, it’s because the idea doesn’t come out of nowhere. Director and screenwriter Leah McKendrick told People that the story is based on a story from her roommate. She shared during a comedy show how her father left voicemail messages of up to twenty minutes, talking about the most ordinary things in life. About the weather and what he had eaten. The next comedian reacted with the story that his father hadn’t called him in three years. After a lot of interested ‘oooh’s’ and ‘aaaaa’s’ from the audience, the punchline of the joke came: his father was dead. No one in the room laughed. Except Leah. After her laughter, she suddenly saw the story in front of her. A girl who has lost her father and keeps waiting for her father to call her back. But she would never do that herself, no; she would keep calling her sister. And that became the final story. A real love letter to her sister.

So if you feel like having a good cry and then swooning over a love story that ends well, this film has everything you want. A lot of love, a dose of sadness, a great soundtrack, and honestly: really well-written lines. I know what I’m going to watch tonight. Are you joining me?