A stately but often listless period love story, "The History of Sound" is full of romantic longing but lacks a central spark. It is refined and elegant but comes off as a tepid slog.

Paul Mescal is Lionel Worthing, who has an incredible gift for hearing music and understanding its power and beauty. On scholarship to a music conservatory in Boston in 1917, Lionel meets David White (Josh O'Connor), a singer with a similar ear for music, and their immediate attraction overtakes them both.

Complications soon arise. David is drafted into the war, while Lionel is passed up because he requires glasses. They trade letters and later meet up for a backpacking trip through Maine, where their mission is to collect songs and preserve them for posterity, cataloging the history of music in real time. B

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