The Emotional Architecture of Voicemails for Isabelle: Script Analysis
If you haven’t been studying Leah McKendrick’s work, well, now is the time to start. The multi-hyphenate actor realized early on that the best way for her to break in was to write her own roles, and wow has she delivered. Early notable works include her poison ivy short film Pamela & Ivy, her vigilante thriller feature M.F.A. which garnered a Grand Jury Award nomination at SXSW, her incredibly fun and sophisticated directorial debut Scrambled, another world premiere at SXSW, and now her wildly popular take on a romantic comedy, Voicemails for Isabelle, which debuted on Netflix in June 2026.
And those are just the projects she has also had a hand in acting in and/or directing. She’s also been hired for multiple other high-visibility projects such as the 2025 legacy sequel I Know What You Did Last Summer.
She’s not just putting out cookie cutter content; whether it’s a thriller, coming-of-age, or romance, McKendrick offers a perspective and tone that are undeniably hers. Voicemails for Isabelle may follow a clean rom-com format, but the dialogue is fresh and the conflicts meaningful (as opposed to falling into an angsty trap).
Now this is an early draft of the script. Some pretty significant changes were made prior to the final release of the film, including the moment the two lovebirds meet and one of said lovebird’s names (Austin in this draft…Wes in the final).
But we can still learn a lot from McKendrick’s fresh and meaningful writing. I also love comparing an early draft to the final product because it just goes to show how much revision is necessary to make a film.
OPENING IMAGE
First thing’s first: the real love story in Voicemails for Isabelle is the one between sisters Jill and Isabelle. The film opens on their relationship as children, with the chronically ill Isabelle living vicariously through Jill’s adventures out in the world. These kids swear. They stand up for themselves. They stand up for each other. The tone is set straight away with little eight year-old Isabelle’s first line - “HOLY SHIT” - a response to Jill’s first kiss.
As the girls grow up, McKendrick offers coming-of-age moments for Jill and how she shares them passionately with her little sister: boy-girl dances, favorite songs, learning to drive, leaving home, first job, holidays, and finally…
…it’s the present day. Jill is twenty-eight and unlucky-in-love. Isabelle is twenty-six and hospitalized in the ICU. They stay in touch on opposite coasts by leaving one another voicemails, their bond as strong as ever.
INCITING INCIDENT
Jill is now a staff writer in Hollywood. McKendrick is cheeky even in her action lines, wherein she makes her opinions very clear. Note how she introduces the showrunner JAY:
The girls laugh together over the phone and Isabelle shares her newest health test results with gallows humor earned through a lifetime of illness. Jill wants to hurry home. Isabelle convinces her to stay at her hard-won job and wait three weeks until Thanksgiving.
Unfortunately, Isabelle dies before the holiday and before Jill can make it home to say goodbye.
McKendrick has a natural ease with comedic dialogue, but she is also extremely deft at writing meaningful turns of phrase. Jill’s eulogy for Isabelle is funny, sweet, and full of gratitude for the time on earth she did get to share with her sister.
And before the moment is too tragic for a rom-com, Jill reenacts the wedding dress scene from Bridesmaids - one of Isabelle’s favorites.
FUN AND GAMES
Jill returns to Los Angeles at the urging of her parents and the reminder that Isabelle would have kicked her out weeks ago.
She instantly replays an old voicemail from Isabelle for comfort.
The writers room welcoming is…exactly what you’d expect.
And it’s a montage of Jill’s life post-Isabelle.
Then we meet Austin (“30s, a panty dropper, could sell gluten to a millennial”), a commercial real estate agent in Manhattan who is handed a new work phone.
Jill continues to make questionable dating choices.
Austin has been seeing someone for six months but she dumps him because he “has the emotional maturity of a Seth Rogan character.”
In the middle of Brittani’s moment of clarity, Austin receives a notification.
It’s Jill. Leaving a voicemail for Isabelle.
Austin’s new phone is somehow connected to Isabelle’s old number.
Jill’s message is drunk, vulnerable, funny, self-depricating.
Austin listens to it with a smile.
MIDPOINT
If you’re keeping track, we are 40 pages in and the romantic leads haven’t met yet. Like I said, McKendrick is telling a different kind of love story.
Jill experiences a meet-cute with dating guru Tyler, and Austin-not-Isabelle gets the full recap. Austin intends to notify Jill that she has the wrong number, but he is interrupted before he can hit send.
He cheers Jill on when she gets to write her first television episode.
He reacts in shared horror when Jill, having kicked Tyler out rather than having sex with him for the first time, exclaims that her body is a wonderland and her vagina is a secret garden…only to have Tyler overhear everything because he’d returned to grab his wallet.
He paces aimlessly when he realizes this incredible, funny stranger is probably having sex with Tyler right at that moment.
He falls a little bit in love with her when he watches her terrible television show and looks her up, seeing her face for the first time.
He bears witness to Tyler ghosting Jill after sleeping with her and texting, “This is exciting.”
He puts the pieces together that Isabelle has died and Jill, grieving, still leaves messages for her.
And he takes a job in Los Angeles.
Jill attends Tyler’s book reading and calls him out publicly for being a phony and for ghosting her. Little does she know that Austin is there. And finally, on page 63 of a 115 page script, Jill and Austin meet.
BAD TO WORSE
Jill and Austin have instant chemistry. McKendrick also places some nice moments that will have meaningful callbacks later, such as when Jill helps Austin write his best man speech for his friends’ wedding.
Though Jill swears she’s swearing off men, she and Austin hit it off. It’s a rom-com after all. Sparks are gonna fly. McKendrick takes us through a series of montages intercut with scenes.
He leaves Los Angeles but asks her to be his date at the wedding in New York in a few weeks.
It’s magic.
Which means it’s time for a shoe to drop.
ALL IS LOST
Austin pulls away and Jill tells him to figure out what he wants.
Worse…her phone updates and all of her voicemails from Isabelle disappear.
Austin’s friends remind him that he’s been checking his phone every three minutes since Jill’s voicemails for Isabelle started coming through. They point out to him that he’s been hiding and encourage him to let Jill see who he truly is.
He gives it a try and convinces Jill to come to the wedding.
But there, she takes a moment to herself and calls Isabelle…only to discover that Austin’s phone rings.
She realizes that he’s been getting her private messages and she confronts him.
He confesses how her voicemails made him feel, how he wanted to be close to her, how he fell for her.
Then she drops a great line: “Those voicemails were not FOR YOU, Austin. This is not about YOU. Those voicemails weren’t a plea to the universe: Send me a man so that I’m not alone anymore! I don’t need a boyfriend. What I NEED…is my little sister back.”
INSERT IMAGE 8
FINALE
Austin makes his best man speech, but it feels empty without Jill.
Jill stands up for herself at work.
Austin flies to Los Angeles and apologizes to Jill. She forgives him…but she doesn’t take him back. She protects herself. He gets a chance to fight for her but he doesn’t take it. “Instead, he hugs her. She closes her eyes. That was it.”
Another montage to show the passing of time. Jill is now excelling at work. Austin attempts to date while his friends send postcards from their honeymoon. New Years comes. Austin leaves a voicemail for Jill saying that he got a new number and paid for Isabelle’s old number for a year so Jill could use it with privacy.
Now, a solid punch-up from this draft to the shooting draft is that Austin is the one who helps recover Isabelle’s voicemails to Jill; in this draft it’s a Geek Squad guy from the Apple store. Either way, one message from Isabelle is retrieved and Jill listens to it.
It’s healing. It sparks something in her.
Austin has a healing epiphany talking with his dad about the love he shared with Austin’s deceased mom.
Austin runs to find Jill.
They confess their love for one another and share that they’re both scared of being hurt. That’s what love is, right? Taking a chance on something great even though you might be disappointed.
In the final scene, Austin leaves a voicemail for Isabelle confessing his feelings for Jill and asking for a sign to ask Jill to move in with him.
Jill also leaves a voicemail - her last one, because she’s going to be okay.
Then Isabelle and Jill’s favorite song comes on. It’s the sign both Jill and Austin needed.
There’s hope for the lovers, separately and alone.
