Voicemails for Isabelle review: Netflixs new rom-com is surprisingly good

Running time: 118 minutes.Rated TV-14 (sexual content, alcohol use, suggestive jokes, frequent foul language and some comedic violence).

On Netflix.Netflix is giving me rom-com whiplash. On June 5, Jennifer Lopez starred in an execrable one for the streamer called “Office Romance” — I wonder what that’s about! — which embarrassingly failed to bring Jenny from the Aughts’ Hollywood heyday back to life.And then just two weeks later arrived the infinitely better “Voicemails for Isabelle,” a sweet and funny if stalkerish movie that nostalgically harks back to the 2010s and those love-centric films that often came with a heaping scoop of heartache.Watching Netflix’s tries has been like plucking flower petals: I love them, I love them not, I love them, I love them not.This one, I like.Given the rawly emotional tone of “Isabelle,” you’d think it was based on a popular young-adult novel.Yet it’s neither about teens nor adapted from a book.

Writer-director Leah McKendrick’s characters are in their twenties and the plot is original.Of course, her movie is also keenly aware that no romance film is ever fully original.“You’re so dramatic,” says Isabelle (Ciara Bravo), who suffers from cystic fibrosis, to her worried sister Jill when her health deteriorates.

“This is not ‘A Walk to Remember’.” Responds Jill (Zoey Deutch): “But is it ‘A Fault in Our Stars’?” The pair are inseparable best friends and we watch them cutely grow up together from 2010 to 2026 — jamming out to “Dancing On My Own” by Robyn, showing playground bullies who’s boss and starting accidental kitchen fires. As Isabelle’s worsening condition keeps her at home, Jill is able to spread her wings, go to prom and meet boys.Still, the sisters make a habit of ringing each other constantly, so Isabelle can live vicariously through Jill’s phone.When she suddenly dies, a despondent Jill keeps leaving diary-like, frequently hilarious phone messages for h...