Great love should make you cry. Because to love truly, recklessly, and beautifully means to open your heart up completely. That kind of true love can only end in tears, one way or another. Voicemails for Isabelle reminds you that love has to hurt. The sad reality of living and loving is that we love people that we will eventually lose, or will lose us. Many great love movies discuss unrequited love or the agonizing pain of a breakup, but some even better ones explore losing a soulmate and finding another while healing. That’s the main premise of Voicemails for Isabelle, but only partly why it’s such a beautiful love story.Warning: Voicemails for Isabelle spoilers are ahead. Proceed with caution. (Image credit: Netflix)Voicemails For Isabelle Wasn't Just A Love Story Between The Main Characters But An Ode To SistersMy sisters mean the world to me. To lose them would destroy me because they are, in many ways, my best friends and two of my soulmates. If you have a sister that you’re close with, you automatically feel Jill’s (Zoey Deutch) pain. Isabelle (Ciara Bravo) is her world. Isabelle was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at a young age, so Jill knows that Isabelle likely won’t live to old age. However, knowing someone will die doesn’t prepare you for the devastation when it happens.Jill knows Isabelle will die. We know Isabelle will die, but we all mourn this loss. The main love story of Voicemails for Isabelle is between these sisters. Jill and Wes’s (Nick Robinson) love story is secondary but just as profound. Jill wants a love story similar to the great rom-com movies.Wes provides this for her, and their love story makes you swoon. However, Isabelle and Jill’s love is what drives the movie. It gives it heart and soul. You care equally about Jill’s love with Wes and Isabelle. Not many romantic movies show two love stories happening simultaneously. Jill’s love for Isabelle shows an everlasting love that can’t be broken, even in death. Her love for Wes shows something new and fragile, but just as important to her, especially during this time in her life.(Image credit: Netflix)The Film Also Had Some Empowering Messages That I Think Many Will Connect WithLike with many great love movies, Wes and Jill eventually reach the conflict portion of their relationship. Their breakup isn’t devastating, like some others, because it’s important to their growth as a couple. It’s also inevitable as part of the film’s formula and plot. However, the main purpose of Wes and Jill’s breakup is to show that Jill doesn’t need Wes. She’s fine on her own. I think that’s such a powerful message in a romantic dramedy. Many films, especially centered on romance, focus on the woman needing the man to feel complete. We have even seen so many epic moments and lines that declare this exact sentiment. The woman is not her full, true self without the love of this man. It may go both ways in many films, but sometimes it is put out there that the woman needs this man more than it emphasizes the man needing the woman.Voicemails for Isabelle shows something different by having Jill state that she doesn’t need Wes. It’s very clear that he needs her, though. I love movies that empower women, because they often go against societal norms, especially those still held up as the standard. By showing Jill thrive with or without Wes, this movie breaks some romantic movie clichés. Wes adds to Jill’s life, but he isn’t the prize or the goal. She has bigger dreams that don’t revolve around him.(Image credit: Netflix)Nick Robinson And Zoey Deutch Had Chemistry That Felt Effortless And NaturalZoey Deutch is no stranger to charming Netflix fans. Everyone loved her with Glen Powell in Set It Up. She repeats this success with Voicemails for Isabelle, and that really helps make it one of Netflix’s best romantic movies. Nick Robinson is also no stranger to onscreen chemistry. He has had it in many of his romantic movies, including in one of the best LGBTQ+ romantic movies, Love, Simon. Therefore, no one is surprised that they’re great together in Voicemails for Isabelle.It’s their chemistry that makes it one of our favorite romance films of the year. Maybe the movie would have worked with different leads, but Robinson and Deutch are perfect in these roles. Their chemistry feels natural, playful, and a little bit anxious. It’s how two strangers falling in love should feel, especially when one is hiding a major secret. Robinson and Deutch may be another set of actors with amazing chemistry that I need to see in more things together. When you find actors who know how to make you smile while watching them, you just want more of that feeling. (Image credit: Netflix)Wes Felt Like A Male Character Written By A Woman, We Need More Of ThatSome people adore male characters written by women. They love how gentle, sensitive, caring, and considerate they feel. They’re the dream guys. However, I am someone who sometimes doesn’t like romantic book male leads because sometimes they feel a little too unrealistic. However, Voicemails for Isabelle made me appreciate the appeal of male characters written by women, especially in modern times.I loved that Wes and Jill were getting hot and heavy, but Wes stopped. He knows it’s unethical for him to have sex with Jill when she doesn’t know everything, especially something as big as him having access to her private voicemails with her deceased sister. Far too many past romantic movies didn’t consider the idea of consent being murky if all details about a partner are not known before they have sex. This moment in Voicemails for Isabelle stood out so much because it’s something only a character written by a woman may consider. We also watch Wes yearn harder for Jill than she does for him. Nick Robinson masters the longing look in Voicemails for Isabelle. Additionally, so many movies have that moment where the guy sees the woman look gorgeous for the first time and drools and falls head over heels. That moment comes for Wes when he hears how quirky she is with her sister and standing up to the podcast guy. Wes also manages to redeem himself. He does more than enough to make up for his deceit. Despite his trickery, I never disliked or judged Wes, and that’s because director and screenwriter Leah McKendrick did such a good job of creating this very likable fictional man. His secret is uncomfortable, but because of Wes as a character, it’s an easy one to overcome. (Image credit: Netflix)Voicemails For Isabelle Was The Perfect Blend of Cheesy, Sentimental, Funny, And RomanticVoicemails for Isabelle inspires so many emotions. It touches the heart in more ways than one. I loved every minute of it, and I knew I would the moment it played Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own” (one of my personal favorite songs). The moments with the song are so gorgeously cheesy. I laughed plenty of times, almost cried a few, wanted to call my sisters, and had so many moments when the romance had me twirling my hair. I don’t think Netflix will top this one in my heart.