This centers on unironic notions of coming to grips with guilt. Merrill berates the distraught boy to stop his 'whining' about Rennie's death. Old-style real men in action, here.The crashing model plane and car crash must have been impressive on the big screen.The storytelling itself, despite the flashback sequences, plays it straight -- all the narrators are trusted by us (regardless of the 'truth' or 'untruth' of the dialogue), so there's no game with the viewer about narrative structure. This would become a rough template for future retellings, such as "Fearless".So all we're left with is individual performance, and at that level, it's best for Wynn's bantering, a virtual one-man show.