Voicemails for Isabelle is a 2026 Netflix romantic comedy about grief, and it is made for adults. A grieving sister keeps calling her late sister's phone, a stranger hears every message, and the film is warm and funny about loss. It also has several sex scenes and a lot of frank talk about sex, so for most families it fits older teens, around 16 and up, better than younger ones.
TL;DR
Voicemails for Isabelle is a movie, not a book. Leah McKendrick wrote and directed it, Zoey Deutch and Nick Robinson star, and it premiered on Netflix on June 19, 2026. The UK's BBFC rated it 15, and New Zealand's classification office flags sex scenes, violence and sexual references. It's a good watch for a 16- or 17-year-old who likes romance and can handle a story about a sister dying. For a 13-year-old, a cleaner grief-and-romance pick is Five Feet Apart (PG-13). For more titles in this range, see our best shows for kids list.
Jill (Zoey Deutch) is an aspiring baker in San Francisco whose younger sister, Isabelle (Ciara Bravo), dies after a life with cystic fibrosis. Jill keeps leaving voicemails on Isabelle's old number, telling her about her day, her dating life and her plans. The number has been reassigned to Wes (Nick Robinson), a real estate agent in Austin, who listens to every message, starts to fall for her, and has to decide whether to tell her he exists.
The premise sounds like it could tip into creepy. The film plays it as a romantic comedy, and most critics liked it: 88% of reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes were positive, and the praise centers on how real the grief feels. It runs 118 minutes.
This is the part parents ask about. New Zealand's classification office, which reviewed Netflix's own rating, describes several sex scenes with characters under blankets and audible climaxing, frequent references to oral sex and masturbation, and comic sexual encounters that include some light choking played for laughs. Nothing is explicit on screen, but the jokes and dialogue are constant.
For a 13-year-old, that is a lot. For a 16- or 17-year-old, it's in line with most adult rom-coms they can already find on Netflix. Watching it with them, or at least knowing they're watching it, makes the choking gag and the sex talk easier to raise afterward.
Isabelle dies off screen, but there is an intense hospital scene and the whole film is built around missing her. Kids who have lost a sibling, a parent or a close friend may find it cathartic or may find it too close. The voicemails are funny as often as they are sad, which is what makes it work, and it ends on a hopeful note.
Language includes occasional strong swearing, and there's a playground fistfight between kids.
The film gives you an easy opening that isn't about sex at all: the phone. Jill keeps a dead person's number alive because it still feels like a line to her sister.
Ask: "If you couldn't get to your phone tomorrow, what would you miss most, the photos or the messages?"
It's a way into how we hold on to people through what they left on our devices, and what a stranger can learn from messages you thought were private. That second point is worth a minute with any teen who sends voice notes. For more on screens at this age, see the digital guide for high school.
Q: Is Voicemails for Isabelle a book? No. It's an original Netflix film. Leah McKendrick's script was on the 2019 Black List of well-liked unproduced screenplays, and there is no novel by that name.
Q: Is Voicemails for Isabelle OK for a 12- or 13-year-old? For most families, not yet. The romance and the grief are fine for that age; the sex scenes and steady sexual jokes are what push it to the BBFC's 15.
Q: What's a gentler movie about grief and first love? Five Feet Apart is also about cystic fibrosis and is rated PG-13. The Fault in Our Stars is the classic pick, and You've Got Mail is the PG ancestor of the "falling for someone through their messages" plot.
Q: Does it have a happy ending? Mostly. Jill doesn't stop missing Isabelle, but she finds her footing, and the romance lands.
Voicemails for Isabelle is a well-reviewed adult rom-com with a big heart about losing a sister. For a teen of 16 or older who likes this kind of story, it's a good pick, ideally one you watch together. For younger teens, start with Five Feet Apart or The Fault in Our Stars.