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. But they're soon pulled apart again, their lives veering off in different directions, while silently carrying a flame for each other.

Mescal and O'Connor, both of whom have attained Internet Boyfriend status, are two of the hottest young actors working today, and "The History of Sound" pairs them well but keeps them apart for most of the film's two-hour-plus running time. It's that time apart that largely drags, as Lionel is sent off to Europe to perform in a choir and settles down with a wife (Emma Canning).

Director Oliver Hermanus (2022's "Living") keeps everything on a very low heat — too low, in fact, to ever rise to a simmer. There's a gut punch awaiting, and it stings when it lands, but "The History of Sound" never manages to rise above a gentle whisper.

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'THE HISTORY OF SOUND'

Grade: C

MPA rating: R (for some sexuality)

Running time: 2:08

How to watch: Now in theaters

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