ABSTRACT
Dennis Lehane's novel Mystic River and Clint Eastwood's film of the same name navigate between various binaries to produce politically assiduous critiques of urban life that defy genre and film noir in particular. Both Bakhtin's concept of heteroglossia and Lefebvre's notion of abstract space resonate with the film's cinematic techniques and mise en scène in ways that enable the viewer to draw meaning from the film that cannot be attributed to the plot itself. The film decenters urban experiences and blurs traditional boundaries towards a tragic effect, and perhaps intentionally fails to fully represent the pain and confusion that its characters embody. The cinematic refusal to arrive at any definitive ethical conclusions contributes to the biting critique of anti-ideal urban life as it is portrayed within a particular Boston neighborhood.
