What Women Want

Continuity mistake: When Mel tries on the pantyhose, the hole in the left leg changes from large on the outside of his leg, to small with a run on the outside of his leg to large on the inside of his leg. (00:25:45)

Continuity mistake: When Nick first enters Sloane Curtis and is talking to one of his male co-workers, in the background there is a man in the typing away at his computer. He gets up and walks off, then the camera angle changes for a few seconds. When it returns, the man returns to his computer. It cuts away and returns a few more times, rather quickly, each time showing the man returning to his computer. (00:08:35)

Continuity mistake: At the beginning, when Lauren Holly is explaining about her ex-husband, the little boy has a photo taken with all the girls. The woman on the far left opens her jacket in a flasher style, but in the actual picture, her hands are on her hips.

Continuity mistake: When Helen Hunt first gives Mel Gibson a tour of her new apartment, she shows him the bedroom, where you can clearly see brown paper taped on the floor where the head of her bed would be. While they are dancing, there is no paper there. (01:38:00 - 01:38:55)

Continuity mistake: Bette Midler lights up a joint and then goes to sit next to Mel Gibson. She has the joint when she sits down, but in the next shot she's gesturing with her hands and the joint is gone. (00:49:00)

Continuity mistake: When Mel is watching TV on the sofa and serving himself from a bottle of champagne you can see a front view of him using his right hand and tilting the bottle toward his right side, then there is a change of scene (from the back of the sofa) and his right hand his tilted to this left side. (00:20:35)

Continuity mistake: Just before Mel says "You go girl" he grabs a bottle of wine by the neck, then the camera switches view, and he is holding it at the middle of the bottle.

Continuity mistake: In the scene in the bathroom when Nick sits down on the bathtub, you see a bath mat on the floor (with no pearls on). That wasn't there in the previous shots.

Jacob La Cour

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Mel Gibson is in the department store trying to listen to womens' thoughts (to see if he has successfully rid himself of his "gift"), you can clearly see he is standing on a white marble floor. A couple of shots later (when he discovers that he still has his "gift"), the camera angle moves above his head as he looks toward the ceiling; you can clearly see that he is now standing on an inlaid marble star in the floor. (00:46:16)

Continuity mistake: When Mel Gibson And Helen Hunt are in the bar having drinks, Helen has a Martini with two olives on a toothpick. When they start talking, she takes the olives out of her drink. In the next shot, she takes a sip of her drink without the olives. They talk for a few more seconds, then Helen goes for another sip and she is taking the olives out of her drink again.

TiggBoy

Continuity mistake: The young Nick doesn't have "baby blues" as his ex-wife describes them in the opening credits. (00:02:45 - 00:03:30)

Continuity mistake: When Darcy arrives at Sloane Curtis and is passing out the boxes with the marketing ideas for the people to take home and come up with ideas, she slides a box down to Nick at the end of the table. When he grabs it, his thumb is on the top of the box and his fingers are on the back of the box. The next shot his thumb and index finger are on top and the other three fingers are on the back.

TiggBoy

Continuity mistake: When Mel Gibson is in the doctor's office and he comments on the lamp that she bid for on Ebay by reading her mind, she also has the auction page up on her computer. If you look closely you will notice that the auction is not an Ebay auction, but rather a Yahoo! auction. (00:47:30)

Continuity mistake: When Mel Gibson is slipping across the bathroom floor on the bath beads, immediately after remembering the name of his daughters' boyfriend, his pantyhose don't have any holes in them. Earlier in the scene, he makes a big hole in the ankle. (00:26:00 - 00:28:20)

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Mel Gibson is talking to Bette Midler (the psychiatrist) and she realises his "talent" she puts her pen down, then it shoots back to him, and then back to her and she drops her pen on the ground. (00:48:10)

Continuity mistake: Two totally different locations are used for the exterior of Darcy's new apartment. When Nick stands outside trying to get Darcy to answer, the building has no steps leading up to it and has a rectangular art deco style front door, flanked by two window panels. In the closing scene, which takes place the same day/evening, Nick is supposedly visiting the same building as earlier, but this time it has steps leading up to an arched front door and has a completely different facade. This can't be explained by one apartment being her old place, the other her new place, as not nearly enough time has elapsed in this sequence to make such an explanation possible.

Continuity mistake: When the old Chinese granny shows Mel where to go, she is shown holding the umbrella with him, one shot, her hand is above his, and in the next shot it is below his. (01:42:50)

Continuity mistake: When Nick meets Alex's boyfriend for the first time, Cameron's necklace changes from one style to another then back to the original between shots.

Continuity mistake: During the entire scene when Darcy is first introduce and handing out boxes, the position of her hair keeps changing. At times one side is along her back then it is on her front side. Also both sides are doing the same, being either in front or back.

Continuity mistake: After Nick has tried on the pantyhose, there 2 small towels on top of 2 bigger ones on the towel rack. They appear to be neatly folded and even. The scene cuts to his daughter walking in then back to Nick. The small towel on the left side is now shorter in length and not neatly placed.

Continuity mistake: At the beginning, when Lauren Holly is explaining about her ex-husband, the little boy has a photo taken with all the girls. The woman on the far left opens her jacket in a flasher style, but in the actual picture, her hands are on her hips.

More mistakes in What Women Want

Alex: Oh please, Mom had this talk with me when I was like, 11.

More quotes from What Women Want

Trivia: The fictional childhood of Nick, growing up in a burlesque club surrounded by beautiful, nearly naked women who adored him, is bizarrely similar to the actual childhood of Alan Alda, who plays the boss character. Alan Alda's father ran a burlesque club, and apparently the strippers and dancers treated the young Alda as a mascot, even keeping him in the changing room as they got dressed. However, as an adult Alda became an activist for feminist causes, rather than the chauvinist effect it had on the fictional Nick.

More trivia for What Women Want

Question: Why is the Apple logo on Nick's laptop upside down?

Answer: Apple PowerBooks of the time (around 1999 to 2001) had the logo the right way up to the user when closed, supposedly to prioritise the experience of the user over that of onlookers. According to former Apple employee Joe Moreno, Steve Jobs later changed his mind and after 2001, Apple notebooks had the logo right way up when opened.

Sierra1

More questions & answers from What Women Want

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.