As Good as It Gets (1997)
Goofs
Jump to:
Audio/visual unsynchronised (4) |
Boom mic visible (1) |
Character error (3) |
Continuity (28) |
Crew or equipment visible (1) |
Errors in geography (1) |
Factual errors (1) |
Miscellaneous (2) |
Revealing mistakes (4) |
Spoilers (1)
Audio/visual unsynchronised
When Carol tells Melvin that he can bring the dog into the restaurant, her mouth isn't moving.
When Simon first meets Carol, she sees his scars from being beaten by the men robbing him. As he is telling her the story, the camera changes as he says "I almost died," right before Melvin cuts them off (to finish the small talk in the car). Simon's voice does not match his mouth as he says this.
When Melvin and Simon both coax Verdell to come to them, Simon holds out the bacon and says in baby talk, "Oop" twice. But the second time he says it, his mouth does not move.
When Carl pulls his car over to the curb where the guys are standing he tells his friend over the speaker-phone "OK, I just found a model", but his mouth does not move.
Boom mic visible
When Carol and her mother are at the kitchen table.
Character error
When Carol takes the train to see Melvyn, after getting out of bed and for the sole purpose of telling him she won't sleep with him, the LED sign on the subway car she is riding says, "Subway Shuttle: Out of Service."
After confronting Simon about his missing dog, Melvin Udall returns to his apartment. The first lock he mistakenly turns 6 times instead of 5, rather than locking it, it remains unlocked. The next couple locks he counts 5. Light switch 5 and counts out loud.
Despite his OCD leading to forced hygiene, Melvin touches several door knobs with his bare hands during his visit to the psychiatrist.
Continuity
When Melvin and Carol walk past the bakery at the end of the
movie, the lights come on and the staff in the bakery can be seen working. Before the lights came on, the staff must have been working in pitch black.
When Simon is in the hotel in Baltimore, he rips his cast between the thumb and index finger. Upon the return to New York, when Carol is exiting the car, the cast is clearly and repeatedly seen to be intact.
When Carol and Melvin are talking in the restaurant before the trip to Baltimore, Carol folds up the pages of the "Thank you" letter but they are immediately unfolded again.
When Simon spends the night with Melvin, Carol calls and Simon picks up. When it's time for Melvin to talk to her, Simon supposedly sets the phone on the table for him to pick it up. But, when Simon does this, there is a sound of him hanging up the receiver, not setting it aside. When Melvin walks over to it, he picks it off the table as if it had always been there.
When Simon, Melvin and Carol go to Baltimore and Carol gets to drive while Simon is telling his story, the convertible has the roof down and its down when she says she'll pull over to give Simon her full attention, but when they pull over the roof is up.
The length of the dog's hair (especially on its legs) changes inconsistently throughout the movie.
On the way home from Baltimore, they stop by a Mobil gas station. Different signs give prices of $1.13 and $1.14 for a gallon of unleaded.
When Carol pulls over Melvin's Saab convertible so she can get the full story from Simon the top is up when she pulls over. In the previous scene it was down. There is no way the top could go up at in that short amount of time, and not at the speed she was traveling at, without damaging it. Also, they pull over next to an iron gate with a stone base; although the base of the wall is as high as the car when it pulls over, the gate itself can be clearly seen at eye level during the interior car shots, as can a tree or what might be a stone divider in the gate that is not present as the car pulls over.
When Melvin takes Simon soup, it is past 3am. In the next scene, Carol is up writing Melvin a thank-you letter on the same night; the clock reads 7.20, Spencer is still up, and Carol and her mother are just preparing to go out for the evening.
Melvin removes his glasses twice while looking out of the window before seeing his publisher.
While Simon is being verbally assaulted by Melvin, his shirt is unbuttoned. After he turns away, his shirt is buttoned.
When Melvin, Carol and Spencer get in the cab to go to the hospital, the cab driver is completely different than the one in front of the emergency room.
When Carol, having been caught in the rain on her way to see Melvin, enters Melvin's building, her bra straps are visible through her wet clothing. When she reaches Melvin's door, her wet shirt shows that she is not wearing a bra.
The number of grapes on Melvin's Plate changes repeatedly between shots during his conversation with Carol in the restaurant.
In the fancy restaurant, the singer in the background sings the same song twice. Once as they enter and again after Melvin returns with a jacket.
Carol's hair-pin changes position (from being at the level of her ears to the level of her neck and backwards) when she's making her night visit to Melvin.
The style of knot in Melvin's tie keeps changing when he's having dinner with Carol at the seafood restaurant.
When Carol returns from the dinner with Melvin is dark night but when Simon rips his cast to draw her, there is light coming from the window in the back.
When Melvin puts on the plastic gloves and is going to pick up Verdell, the glove on his right hand is pulled up to almost his wrist, in the next shot as he's actually picking Verdell up, you can see the glove is only partially on and the fingers of the glove are hanging off his hand.
When Melvin kisses Carol the second time, she throws her right arm around his neck. In the next shot of the same kiss, her left arm is the one around his neck.
When Melvin is sitting in the cafe talking to Carol, he removes his glasses and begins to unbutton his breast pocket. In the next shot, his pocket is still buttoned. And in the next, it is unbuttoned as he puts his glasses in.
Carol's watch when she's on the phone with Melvin.
The position of the dog on the rug the first time he is going to eat in Melvin's apartment. First shot, he is on the edge of the carpet, next shot, back on the carpet, and next shot, on the edge of the carpet again. You can tell by looking at the color of the rug.
When Carol kisses Melvin in the restaurant, his right hand disappears and reappears on her hair between shots.
The amount of liquid in Carol's cocktail changes from the time she's at the bar to when it's placed on the table. At the bar it's about 3/4 empty, at the table, it's almost full again.
When Carol is standing and talking to Melvin in the restaurant, when viewed from the back, Carol's arms are straight down. When viewed from the front her hands are on her hips.
About 22 minutes in, when Carol clears Melvin's table, the plates are stacked and held differently in alternate shots. Some shots include the plastic cutlery being cleared, even before Carol brings up the topic.
The headrests in the car while stopped on the side of the road.
Crew or equipment visible
When Carol is waving goodbye to her son, there is a reflection of camera equipment clearly visible in the window.
Errors in geography
During the scene with Melvin on the pay phone, a sign for the Holland Tunnel is visible when he, Carol and Simon should in fact be on their way back to New York.
Factual errors
When Simon picks up his dog from Melvin after returning from the hospital: he's at Melvin's apartment door in a wheelchair but from previous scenes we know there are stairs between the apartments.
Miscellaneous
When Melvin visits Simon late at night (around 64 minutes in) both men appear momentarily distracted by Simon's front door banging.
At 2:32, Melvin turns on the kitchen light then he opens the refrigerator door. The refrigerator interior light does not turn on. It is dark when Melvin grabs a bottle of water.
Revealing mistakes
When Melvin picks up Simon's dog and it urinates, you can see that the stream of urine is clearly coming out of Melvin's gloved index finger.
When Carol asks Melvin to take her and Spencer to the hospital in his cab, Melvin shouts at a group of school children. One girl runs to the front with her mouth wide open. She is clearly instructed by the school the teacher to do this.
When Melvin walks to Carol's restaurant for the first time, we see him on the sidewalk, avoiding cracks as he turns a corner. There are spectators in the background, on the sidewalks and in the street, watching the movie being shot; not the normal NYC crowds.
As Carol gets in the Saab to go to Maryland, the driver's seat belt is caught in the head rest, causing Carol to have to duck underneath. Later in the trip it isn't. The head rest would have to be removed to be able to remove the seat belt, not an easy task on their road trip.
Spoilers
Character error
Melvin won't go into Carol's apartment because of the lines on the kitchen floor at the end of the movie. Yet when he first goes to see her earlier in the film, he looks down and walks into her kitchen past the front door, and they do pan a few minutes later to show you the kitchen floor has lines.
