Shallow Hal

Deliberate mistake: Throughout the movie, you can see the size of true-size Rosemary, particularly her waist and legs. Notice the size of undies she was going to purchase when she and Hal first meet. Notice the size of her bathing suit bottom. However, in the scene where she throws her purple nightie undies at Hal and he catches them: the panties are WAY TOO BIG. Especially the leg holes, which could go around her true-size waist.

Continuity mistake: When Hal has "contagious conjunctivitis", Rosemary touches his cheek with a majorly fat hand, but at the end when they're hugging at Rosemary's go-away party, her hands are shrunken and skinny.

Plot hole: In the end when Mauricio meets the dog loving girl his tail is seen wagging through his pants, which he says it does when he's happy or nervous. Since it's so plainly visible, how come Hal (or anyone else for that matter) never noticed it?

Revealing mistake: As they're leaving together from Rosie's house at the end, Rosie stands up in the car to wave at people. The car sinks down with her weight when she puts her second foot inside the car, not when she takes it off the ground which is when all her weight would be on the car. (01:40:20)

Factual error: When Hal meets Rosie's mom, she is a large woman but her hands are skinny. If someone is the size as her character, they would have large hands as well.

Pjpodemski

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Suggested correction: Actually when Hal first meets Rosemary's Mom, she is shown skinny as does Rosemary through the way that Hal sees them. It's not until later in the movie after Hal's hypnosis is gone do we (and Hal) see the "real" fat mom and rosemary and their hands do look a bit larger by then.

It is obvious that Rosemary and her mother are wearing 'fat' suits as neither women are large in real life. The suggested correction in invalid as throughout the movie, the only time Rosemary's hands appear large are in spots. (eating the taffy apple when she met Jill, and rubbing Hal's cheek when he had the goop on his eyes. Yet you never see the full body with a face in those shots.) Therefore, as I stated in the factual error, when Hal meets Rosie's mom at the end (at the party), she is wearing a fat suit, but her hands and Rosie's are skinny. It's a valid movie error.

Pjpodemski

Continuity mistake: In the scene in the gym, where Mauricio is telling Hal that Rosemary has cankles, from shot to shot, the black towel that Hal has in his hands continually jumps from being on his shoulders, to being in his lap. (00:58:15)

Hamster

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Hal goes to congratulate Ralph on getting back together with Rosemary, the amount of dandruff on Ralph's black shirt keeps changing between shots.

Continuity mistake: When Rosemary and Hal are talking in the fast food diner Rosemary's chair breaks and she is looking at Hal on her side, but when the camera changes view she is laying on her stomach. (00:30:05)

Continuity mistake: When Rosemary gets into Mauricio's VW at the end, the car drops down rather significantly (for comedic effect). However when Li'iBoy (who is heavier than Rosemary) and Ralph were in the right side of the car when it pulled up to the house, it wasn't leaning at all.

jerimiah

Continuity mistake: As they're leaving the house at the end, just before they drive off, they show the car from front. Behind them, you can see Jason Alexander with his hands in his pockets. Next shot is from behind the car and he has his hand up in the air waving. (01:40:50)

Factual error: When Jack Black wants to be with Gywneth Paltrow, he decides to join the Peace Corps and leaves soon after. Anyone who has served in the Peace Corps or ever applied for service, knows that it takes months, and in some cases even years, to complete the application process. Therefore, it is impossible to decide to join the Peace Corps one day and commence service shortly afterwards. No one, even people who work at Peace Corps Headquarters, can swear-in as a Peace Corps Volunteer until after their first 3 months (out of a total of 27 months in country) of successful completion of training.

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Gwyneth is stripping at the end of the bed they start out with a front shot. She puts her hair behind her ears and there is none on the front of her. Then they switch to a back shot. She now has her hair pulled forward where it is lying on her chest.

Continuity mistake: In the scene in the restaurant when Hal is about to find out what Rosemary really looks like, Rosemary is sitting with a green napkin in her lap. When she starts to fall, from the booth breaking, the napkin is still in her lap. When Hal rushes over to help her up, the napkin is nowhere in sight.

Visible crew/equipment: When in the elevator, Tony says "OK, hypothetical situation..." and as he talks, to the right of the screen you can see some equipment moving around. (00:14:25)

Hamster

Audio problem: When Hal is talking to Katrina, after he's been de-hypnotized, in the over-the-shoulder shot of him facing her, we hear him talking but his mouth doesn't start moving until he turns to look away from her.

jerimiah

Continuity mistake: When Hal is sitting in the elevator with Tony after it stopped, he is talking about a "severance pop." In this shot, the collar is his shirt is sitting out over his black waistcoat. But in the next closeup, it is nicely tucked under the waistcoat. (00:13:15)

Hamster

Continuity mistake: When Hal's dad is on his deathbed, his hospital gown is wrinkled, including a large fold across his stomach. There is then a shot of Hal with his dad in the foreground and the gown is perfectly smooth. The next shot shows the dad again and the wrinkles are back. (00:03:20)

Jeff Swanson

Continuity mistake: After Hal's hypnosis is broken at the restaurant, he's outside talking with Mauricio and then Katrina walks up to him saying he never called her back. During that line walking up, she still looks fairly attractive (but not nearly like the supermodel look Hal saw in the cab). Then the camera is on Hal a second then back to Katrina and suddenly now she looks fully "unattractive" for the rest of the scene. She should have also looked fully just as unattractive when first walking up to Hal as well.

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Suggested correction: The version of Katrina we see the second time, as she's walking, doesn't change when she starts talking to Hal. Her hair is pulled back and into a ponytail instead of full and blonde like the first time we saw her. The only difference is we don't see her teeth until she starts talking. The camera also never cuts away from Katrina when she's seen walking up to Hal and when she first talks to him. It cuts to him after we see she's less attractive.

Bishop73

Yes, however, her mouth closes close up (without showing her teeth for a second or two), and she still looks like a different person than when first walking up. Maybe it's just the way I see it (maybe I caught Hal's hypnosis).

More quotes from Shallow Hal

Trivia: Nan Martin (the unattractive Tanya/Nurse "sourpuss") was the real-life mother of Zen Gesner (who played Ralph).

More trivia for Shallow Hal

Question: In the scene where Hal, Rosemary, the cripled friend, and Nurse "Sourpuss" go out of town, Hal and his friend got to buy snacks leaving Rosemary and "Sourpuss" to talk. There is a scene where thy cut to the front of the car and Nurse "Sourpuss" is now good looking. So is that her real look and Hal only sees her as old and ugly?

SAZOO1975

Chosen answer: Yes. Just as Hal sees many unattractive and/or overweight women to be thin and beautiful due to their true personalities, he sees Nurse "Sourpuss" - who is a beautiful woman - to be old and ugly due to hers.

Jeff Swanson

Answer: At that point Hal and his friend had already turned their backs and went to the store so Hal was not even looking at her.

Answer: I thought maybe Hal's outlook was rubbing off on Rosemary and Rosemary was seeing that less than attractive woman as pretty.

More questions & answers from Shallow Hal

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