I’d been hearing about The History of Sound before cameras even rolled on the project. A queer romance based on a short story by Ben Shattuck, starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor, directed by Oliver Hermanus, who recently gave us the terrific Bill Nighy film Living – this all sounded very exciting to me. The film premiered earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival where it received a positive, yet muted reception, went onto be picked up by Mubi, the streaming service for prestige cinema and competitor to the Criterion Channel, and now distributor. Mubi had a very good 2024 following their release of The Substance, and subsequent Oscar nominations. The hype surrounding this film was unreal. Critics I know and respect praised it and I kept a close eye on where/when the film would be available to see in a theater. I saw no way this film wouldn’t work for me. Unfortunately, these things don’t always pan out.

Lionel (Paul Mescal) meets David (Josh O’Connor) while the two are studying music at the New England Conservatory in 1917. They bond over their shared love of folk music and songs that are long forgotten. A spark quickly forms between them and they fall in love. After America gets involved in the war, David is drafted and Lionel is not. We follow the two for years, and witness the highs and lows of this forbidden romance.

I want to begin by saying Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor have nothing to do with my disappointment here. Both are as charming and lovely and captivating as ever. But the script makes some fatal errors when it decides to separate them for extended periods of time. When they’re onscreen together, the film is alive and electric. But when it separates them or follows something else, all that momentum falls off a cliff. And it’s a shame, because there is so much promise here, so many things they could have done with these two actors, that Shattuck’s script decisively avoids. Also, the pacing here is a big problem. I’m all for a restrained tone, and a languid pace if the film earns it – slow does not equal boring. But the amount of times I found myself looking at my watch during this film cannot be understated. And it’s all a bit depressing because this is a film I’ve been looking forward to all year, and I couldn’t have expected the shoulder shrug I left the film with.

Paul Mescal certainly has more on his plate than O’Connor – we follow Lionel as our protagonist and everything happening to David is kind of an extension of Lionel. Mescal and O’Connor have a rare kind of crackerjack fireworks chemistry that makes the overall disappointment of this film all the more devastating. What both actors can do with wordless communication to each other, it’s a sign that these two actors are very much in sync with what they want these performances and characters to be, and O’Connor and Mescal get to do some A+ face acting reminiscent of silent movie stars. We also have Chris Cooper show up near the end, and that sequence is one of the only things that really works well here. We don’t have much of a supporting cast to note of here, this is largely a two-hander between Mescal and O’Connor. And that would work if there were more to these characters, but there is very little depth to either of them.

Alexander Dynan is our cinematographer here, and to his credit, the film always looks gorgeous, and Dynan does a lot with his locations. Not a lot stood out to me about the production or costume design, or even the score. And director Oliver Hermanus certainly did a better job with pacing and rhythm in his last film than here. I’ve said it already, but it bears repeating – the pacing is sloooooow. Having been based on a short story, perhaps there just wasn’t enough here for a two-hour feature. However, the short story to feature film trajectory worked for Brokeback Mountain, which this film seems to be shamelessly ripping off. Or maybe if you settle into the vibe and meet this movie on its level (which I admittedly tried to do for most of it), you’ll have a better time. But considering how I felt there couldn’t possibly be a world in which I didn’t love this movie, that might be easier said than done.

The History of Sound is more of an endurance test than a sweeping romance. It starts off strong and then it just keeps going downhill, so much so that I left more annoyed than moved. It also does that thing a lot of films do lately where we have about ten different points where we could have ended the movie, and the story just keeps going. We have a strong opening and a strong ending, and a lot of nonsense in the middle. I would like to see Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor do a movie like this again, with a better script and sharper direction, because they really had something here, and their chemistry and their talents are largely wasted. It’s unfortunately quite easy to see why this film has garnered almost no awards season buzz since Cannes. The History of Sound left me heartbroken, but not in the way this movie wants.