'The History of Sound': A Meditative Romance That Feels More Minor Than Major

PHOTO: MUBI

As I started watching The History of Sound, I couldn’t help but think of Brokeback Mountain, as the two films share a couple of major similarities. Both films star a pair of popular actors of their respective moments, and both center on the romance between the characters they play. But The History of Sound takes a more muted approach in its storytelling, especially when compared to the emotionality of Brokeback. Director Oliver Hermanus and screenwriter Ben Shattuck tell a tale of repression and unrequited love against the backdrop of early 20th century America, as two men journey towards understanding their identities and record folk songs for archival purposes. The story provides fertile ground for a tragic romance, and yet it doesn’t exactly produce as substantial an output as one would think. There is an emotional detachment that mirrors the journey of its protagonist that occasionally works, but leaves the film feeling a little cold in places. The History of Sound has bursts of poignancy and beauty, but the rest of the film is a little too bland and restrained to have a serious impact.

Lionel Worthing (Paul Mescal) has a gift for understanding and deeply appreciating music, one that takes him all the way from rural Kentucky to the Boston Music Conservatory. While there, he meets David White (Josh O’Connor), another student who shares his passion for music. The two hit it off right away and begin a romantic relationship before David is sent off to fight in World War I. When he returns a few years later, he contacts Lionel and invites him to travel across Maine with him to collect folk songs from the locals there. Over the rest of the film, we see the two men grapple with their identities and their relationship, and explore the rhythms of their memories and the music that flows through them.

The idea of a romance blooming between a couple of folk music fans in the early 1900s sounds promising, but the film stops just short of delivering on it. The core love story between Lionel and David has some weight to it, but it doesn’t feel too unlike something we’ve seen several times before. The framing of the story also causes it to lose some of its power, as we really only see it from Lionel’s perspective. David is missing for large stretches of the film, and his absence is strongly felt. I can see why the film might not go too much into his side of the story, as it seems to be going for a gentler tone and a bit of ambiguity regarding Lionel’s memories of their relationship, but it does make the film feel a bit dull as a result. Lionel is not a particularly interesting character, but David balances him out well. The moments where they are together are some of the best in the film, but the quality varies significantly when they are apart. I can see what the film is doing with David and why it is withholding him for much of the runtime, but I don’t think it fully works. It just makes some of the scenes without him, particularly in the back half, drag on and for some stretches of the film to feel flat and icy.

Part of this also is due to the fact that Paul Mescal just doesn’t have the juice to make a character like Lionel all that compelling, which is problematic considering he’s the lead of the whole film. Now I wouldn’t say that Mescal is a bad actor by any means, but I feel like he has a more hands-off style that doesn’t always work for the characters he plays. This detached style of acting occasionally works, but there is not much nuance or depth to his performance. It’s disappointing because I can see how Mescal could have made this role work, but so much of what he does in this film is surface level at best. Josh O’Connor, on the other hand, is quite good, and demonstrates his seemingly natural ability to sink into the roles he plays. He plays up the charm in the earlier portions of the film, but has some vulnerability that comes out at times. He doesn’t get a chance to really dig in with the character of David, but this is mostly by design. However, O’Connor still is able to breathe some life into his performance, and he is easily the MVP of the whole film.

The film in general starts off rather strong, with Chris Cooper providing narration as an older Lionel as we see his humble beginnings and the meet-cute between him and David. From here until the end of their journey through Maine, the film is pretty good, and if the film was solely about their journey through Maine, I might have liked it more. However, there is a whole hour of the film after this, and most of it just didn’t work for me. There are two scenes that I liked, those being a scene where Lionel talks to one of David’s exes, and the film’s epilogue which features the aforementioned Chris Cooper. The rest of the back half is either derivative, boring, or both, and significantly drags the film down. It doesn’t help that the film’s pace slows down quite a bit during the back half, which is saying something considering that the first half isn’t exactly moving at breakneck speed. The portions of the film that feature Lionel and David together have a spark to them, as do the portions of the film where they collect songs, but the film droops quite a bit in the middle and can’t fully recover from this.

What the film lacks in energy and depth, it makes up for in its craft. The film is quite handsome, utilizing a cool color palette and some decent camerawork. Much of the outdoor scenes are beautifully shot, and the film also makes good use of shadows and light in some moments. I also really enjoyed the music, which is made up of folk songs and some lovely bits of piano score. One of my favorite moments involves a vocal duet between Lionel and David that we hear as Lionel returns home to Kentucky after David is sent off to war. The film uses music so well throughout, matching the moods of the characters and adding a little to the overall storytelling. These elements are a bit understated, but considering that is what the film is going for, they work quite well.

The History of Sound is a muted, meditative film that has a handful of things I liked, but also plenty that didn’t connect with me. It feels a bit too basic and drawn out to fully work, which is a shame because I can see the vision here. Oliver Hermanus and Ben Shattuck are clearly doing their best, but the film still comes up short and feels kind of like a watered down version of Brokeback Mountain from time to time. It’s clear that the film is wanting to be more muted and pensive, but there are far more interesting ways to go about this while also maintaining the specific mood and tone it wants to pull off. There is a beauty to it at various points, but it mostly just comes across as another bland period romance with very little going on below its surface.

Rating: 2.5/5