Opiniões dos críticos

The History of Sound... is a tenderly felt drama sung in whisper and sorrow, the kind that almost guarantees a cry for anyone weakened by a phenomenal homegrown voice or piercing romance. Its alternately hyper-specific and vast range of vocals, styles, and tunes suggest the minor dawning of a lesser-known American sound.

Its buttoned-up nature and chasteness might frustrate those hoping for a more salacious story, but Hermanus and writer Ben Shatuck (adapting from his own short story of the same name) have produced a unique and moving romance for those willing to listen.

A movie that chronicles a startling gay romance set a century ago. A romance that may have you fighting back tears the moment our lovebirds first gaze upon each other. That is, until the seams in the screenplay begin to unravel and the magic begins to fade.

“The History of Sound” is an awfully muted affair. Muted in color, performance, tenor and tone...

“The History of Sound,” which might be described as a minimalist “Masterpiece Theatre”-on-the-frontier riff on “Brokeback,” is a drama that mostly just sits there. It’s far from incompetent, but it’s listless and spiritually inexpressive. It’s “Brokeback Mountain” on sedatives.

The sexually coy History of Sound is neither as moving as Hermanus’s 2022 tear-jerker Living, nor as arresting as the director’s LGBTQ classics Beauty and Moffie. Unlike those films, there’s no sense of historical queer jeopardy as Lionel moves between America, England and Rome, all swooningly captured by cinematographer Alexander Dynan.

At one point, the protagonist mentions ‘a false note’. Despite the beautifully sung folk songs and the truly lovely and sympathetic lead actors, unfortunately that is precisely what this film is.

Hermanus has made great movies in the past including Beauty and Living but this is a film that is almost petrified by its own upmarket values, paralysed under the varnish of classiness... Everything here is out of the top drawer of production value: but it never really comes to passionate life.

[I]f you tap into The History of Sound’s soulful undercurrents, the soaring spiritual dimensions of the music — in songs more often about people than Divinity — and the depth of feeling in Mescal and O’Connor’s performances, this is a film of lingering melancholic beauty. The power of the music alone makes it one of the most unabashedly romantic LGBTQ films in recent memory.

A tender, decade-spanning love story, exquisitely told by director Oliver Hermanus, The History of Sound is yet another wonderful showcase for the considerable talents of Josh O’Connor and Paul Mescal.

The History Of Sound sees him [Paul Mescal] return to romance, in a beautiful period drama that’s as gorgeous as it is heartbreaking... A deeply sad movie about thwarted love, The History of Sound is essential viewing.

This hardening of a gentle soul is well brought out in the script, and Mescal’s well-honed performance.