Near the end of Voicemails for Isabelle, Jill learns a dark secret: the man she has fallen in love with, Wes, already knew everything about her life before they formally met because he was the one receiving the voicemails meant for her sister. After her sister died, the phone number was reassigned to a work phone – a phone that Wes happened to have. He fell in love with Jill simply by listening to the messages she sent to her deceased sister.
While it is a massive breach of trust, what makes it worse is that Wes should have told Jill the truth much earlier. Instead, he waited too long, leaving her to find out in the most unexpected way. As I noted in my review, the film is bound to a predictable formula here, giving the two romantic leads time apart to think, reflect, and reconnect.
Space and time always heal
Jill spends her time figuring out her next steps after quitting her job working for the high-profile chef. But what is even more painful for her is that following an iOS update, she loses all of her sister’s old voicemails. Not only has she lost her job and her relationship, but she has now lost the one tool that helped her cope with her loss. It’s the classic “rock bottom” screenwriting trope that ensures a character experiences a streak of bad luck immediately following a heartbreak.
Eventually, her parents intervene and give her the money from her sister’s unused college fund. With that money, she takes a leap of faith and buys an old food truck to open a dessert and breakfast taco business, featuring all the specialties she and her sister loved.
Honestly, at this point, I wondered if Jill even needed Wes back in her life. She was successfully finding ways to reconnect with her sister and had found confidence in her culinary craft. She also employed a former colleague to help run the food truck, so she wasn’t alone. There is a great message here about how time and space can be incredibly healthy in these moments.
Meanwhile, Wes is just brooding around rather pathetically, pining after Jill while simultaneously insisting to his friends that she will never forgive him. Personally, I didn’t love how Wes’s arc was handled during the split – the script should have given both characters some healthy reflection time. Wes did, after all, lie to her.
New Year’s Eve – do they end up back together?
As New Year’s Eve approaches, Jill is surprised to find that all of her sister’s voicemails have suddenly been restored. She finally has those precious memories back. She also receives a heartwarming voicemail from Wes that is genuinely apologetic and sincere, inviting her to get breakfast tacos at midnight on New Year’s Eve.
When the night arrives, Wes is still convinced that Jill won’t show up, but his friends urge him to head down to Jose’s and not miss his chance. He sprints to the cafe, finds Jill eating tacos, and professes his love for her. With the benefit of time and space, Jill has realized that Wes never had bad intentions regarding the voicemails, and she kisses him. Jill and Wes predictably end up together – but the film executes it rather well.
Voicemails for Isabelle also comes full circle on its grief storyline. In the final moments of the film, Wes leaves a voicemail for Jill’s sister, Izzy, asking for her blessing for them to move in together. Meanwhile, Jill, taking a short break from her food truck, sends one final voicemail to her sister. She explains that this will be her last message because she needs closure, but she accepts that her sister will always be with her. She tells Izzy that she has found a good man in Wes. Just as Wes asks out loud for a sign of Izzy’s blessing, the sisters’ favorite song plays on the radio, and the couple dances to it – the sign was given. While the story was built on romance, it was equally about the importance of grieving and being able to properly process loss, making for a genuinely heartwarming conclusion.
