Love Actually (2003) - 52 mistakes

Continuity: After the airline employee does not allow Sam through to the gate the jewellery salesman loads his bag, coat and gloves into the arms of the employee which gives Sammy a chance to run for it. The position of all his belongings in the arms of the airline employee changes between shots.

Continuity: Juliet arrives at Mark's flat and brings banoffee pie with her, wanting to see the wedding video. She slips the video into the VCR and places the open pastry box on top of the TV stand. As she takes her jacket off the pastry box is gone, yet in the next shot of the TV the box is right next to the remote, which then changes position in the last shot when the remote disappears. The TV is in the center of the stand in some shots, but to the left of the stand in other shots. The video cassettes, etc., change/alter their position within these shots as well.

Continuity: During the final scenes in the airport, as Juliet and Peter run toward Jamie and Aurelia, in the first shot passing on Juliet's right is a bearded man in a suit jacket. In the next shot as Juliet kisses Aurelia the same man just walks through the doorway and starts to pass Juliet. Then in the next shot he enters once again walking behind Jamie. There are others in the terminal whose positions also differ in consecutive shots.

Factual error: In the scene where Karen plays the album "Both Sides Now" by Joni Mitchell, she cries to the title track "Both Sides Now". A shot of the CD player indicates that track 7 on the album is playing, but "Both Sides Now" is track 12 on the actual album.

Continuity: When David, the Prime Minister is introduced to the household staff, his tie changes between shots, while talking to Natalie and then when he walks into his study and closes the door.

Continuity: When Mark is watching Billy on TV, prior to Juliet arriving, in one shot behind him you can see a long wooden pole leaning against the wall to the right. This disappears in the next shot.

Continuity: When Sarah and Karl are making out on Sarah's bed they are interrupted by Sarah's phone ringing. On her bed side table the alarm clock reads 11:53 in the first shot, but in the next couple of shots it reads 11:47.

Continuity: When Jamie and Aurelia meet up with Juliet, Peter and Mark at the airport terminal, Mark's coat collar jumps back and forth between being up in the back or lying entirely flat depending on the angle of the shot.

Continuity: When Mark is at Juliet's door letting her read the big cards he wrote for her, there is a shot where he shows her the photos of supermodels, he hopes to date on the card, then in the second shot of the card, when he is about to change cards, the photo at the top of the card is taken out and the ones at the bottom change position.

Continuity: When Sam sneaks past the airline employee in the first shot the jewellery salesman unloads the employee's arms and tosses his coat over his left arm, then puts his gloves into his left hand and takes his luggage with his right hand. However, in the next shot the gloves have vanished.

Continuity: After opening her gift from Harry, Karen excuses herself and goes to their bedroom. In the two close-ups the oval photograph of Harry and her is beside the stereo, albeit their position differs a bit and the Joni Mitchell CD is lying on the stereo, but in the wide shot of Karen the photograph is gone and the CD is positioned quite differently.

Continuity: When Juliet and Mark are at his flat there is a tall metal self-standing hanging rack and a tall black art canister directly in front of certain canvases and frames. As Juliet inserts the video in the wide shot, the rack and canister are gone. Yet, in the next shot they are back.

Continuity: During David and the US President's press conference, the people standing near Natalie at the back of the room change in the close-ups, semi close-ups and wide shots.

Revealing: In the big scene at the children's show when David and Natalie are revealed kissing behind the curtain, many members of the audience are shown snapping picture after picture. One of the guys who is snapping away very rapidly has a "throw-away" one-time use camera. All one-time use cameras have wind wheels, meaning you can't take photos that quickly.

Continuity: When Mark opens the door, Juliet says "Banoffee Pie?" As she says this, Mark's right arm is down by his side, yet in the next shot, Mark's right arm is up by the door-frame. (It does not matter which way the shot faces, it is still HIS right arm.)

Continuity: When Alan Rickman is trying to purchase the necklace, the extras behind him and Rowan Atkinson change from shot to shot. Most notably, when the shot is on Rowan there is a balding man with a woman, in most shots they face the left of the screen. Every now and then they suddenly switch to facing the right, or disappearing altogether, or there's a different person there.

Continuity: Joanna is missing a tooth on her right side while performing in the school concert but at the airport the tooth is missing on her left side - film flip.

Continuity: While Daniel and Sam sit on the sofa talking after watching Titanic, the pillows around Daniel change in his two consecutive close-ups.

Continuity: Sarah walks into Harry's office, sits down and much of her hair is tucked behind her ears in the side shot. In the next few front shots her hair is first draped straight down, then tucked a bit, and when she stands up in the side shot her hair is positioned as the first side shot, all without her ever touching her hair.

Continuity: When Colin speaks with Nancy at Juliet and Peter's wedding reception he puts the 'dead baby finger' hors d'oeuvre into his mouth in the first shot, but when he spits it back out into his fingers in the next shot, not having chewed or swallowed any, the hors d'oeuvre is quite a bit smaller.

Continuity: At the end of the film in the airport, Colin returns with Harriet. They meet Tony there, and you can see Harriet's sister Carla come round the corridor. Then Harriet turns to introduce Carla, and you can see her blonde hair and arm come onto the screen. But in the next shot, it shows Carla walking towards them, much much further away from where she just was.

Continuity: In the scene where the Prime Minister goes to Natalie's house and they have a conversation with her at the top of the staircase, her fringe changes several times from shot to shot. From a distance, it is combed neatly, whereas close up it is pieced and messy.

Continuity: When Daniel is upset about his wife, his friend, Karen, puts her arm on his shoulder as he starts to cry and you can see her arm whilst he is crying. Then the shot cuts away and his arm has grabbed her arm, but it's too quick for him to have moved it.

Factual error: When the little boy Sam is running through Heathrow airport to say goodbye to Joanna, he is in terminal 1. Virgin Atlantic flights only depart Heathrow from terminal 3.

Continuity: When the Prime Minister has met Natalie, he walks off, and you can see his female assistant walking ahead of him. Then the Prime Minister turns and looks back at Natalie. When it cuts back to the Prime Minister again, the female assistant hasn't got very far and re-walks where she walked in the previous shot.

Continuity: When Mia is talking to Harry from near the doorway to his office, just before Sarah turns up for her talk with him, the office chair behind Mia has been wheeled around. There's nobody moving enough in the scene to account for it at that point, though Sarah comes past moments later on her way in to see Harry.

Continuity: When Aurelia is first introduced, there are several short shots showing only her, with a car visible over her left shoulder (to the right of the frame). At first the brown sun-lit dirt under the car extends out towards the camera, then in the next shot there's much less of it visible. It's clearer again in the next shot of her, and less so in the following shot again.

Continuity: After Sarah has called at Harry's office, Harry prepares to open his office door to see her out. The camera cuts back to Sarah for a moment, then back to the camera angle on Harry as she walks to the door. In that short space of time, the sliding cupboard doors have changed their configuration, and the blinds in the upper left of the frame have partially closed.

Continuity: During the scene with Karl and Sarah kissing on her bed, the position of the cushions behind them on her bed differ a few times. Also, the first time after Sarah's brother rings and she hangs up, in the first shot her arm is by her side and then it is across her chest.

Continuity: When recording the soundtrack at the beginning of the movie, in the first take Billy Mack sings the first line of the verse but there is no vocal back up, but when he sings the second line, "I feel it in my toes," the backup singers repeat the second line. After messing up, in the next two tries, when Billy sings the first line, "I feel it in my fingers," the backup singers DO repeat this line this time. With each run through the three part harmony should sing the very same line each take, but they didn't.

Continuity: Mark is eating breakfast by a table, watching TV, just before Juliet comes round for the wedding video. The table he is standing by has a TV remote on it. In one shot the remote is in the centre of the table, but in the next shot it's on the edge of the table, so Mark can walk past and pick it up with ease.

Continuity: When Billy Mack is appearing on Ant & Dec's TV show to promote his Christmas CD, which is competing against a CD by the group Blue, he uses a marker to draw on his competitors' picture. He draws a voice bubble and a derogatory comment. The shape and points of the voice bubble have changed when the camera cuts back to Billy after showing a shot of his manager shaking his head.

Continuity: During the scene between John and Judy in the classy hotel set, as they are preparing to stimulate sex against the bedpost, Judy removes all her outer layers of clothing and throws them on the bed. In following shots you can see the arrangement of clothing on the bed has changed.

Audio problem: The Prime Minister walks to his car, and says "I'd like to go to Wandsworth, the dodgy end." However it's clear his lips don't correctly say "..the dodgy end."

Continuity: When Karen spots David at the school before the performance, the positions of the striped scarf around her neck and the hanger in her hand differ in the side shots and the shots facing her, as well as her hand position in consecutive shots.

Continuity: In France, when Jamie's phone rings he and Aurelia try to find where it's hidden in the paper mess on the desk. As they search, the notebooks and papers differ greatly in the wide shot, the following close-up when Aurelia finds the phone and in the next wide shot.

Visible crew/equipment: When Sam is running through the airport to catch up with Joanna, there is a long shot of him running towards the gate before he jumps over the guard at the security gates. In this shot there's a very clear glimpse of the spring board he uses for the jump.

Continuity: When Aurelia and Jamie are drinking hot drinks after trying to save his manuscript, she gets up and heads off to get changed. The blanket around her shifts numerous times between shots, from first covering her shoulder, then slipping off down her arm, back to covering it and then again back to not covering it.

Continuity: When Sam and his dad are sitting talking by the river, there is a shot from behind them and a girl walks past. It then cuts to a close up and the same girl walks past them again.

Continuity: When Billy Mack is trying to sing the song correctly at the beginning, his hair is messy and sticking out from under his headset, but during his third attempt in a closeup his hair is neat and combed back under the headset.

Visible crew/equipment: When Harry is talking to Mia about arranging the Christmas party and who will be going, etc., in closeups of him talking you can clearly see the crew screens reflected in his glasses.

Continuity: After one of the interruptions (phone calls from her ill brother), Sarah and Karl sit on adjoining sides of her bed. In the wide shot of the two of them (closer to and facing Sarah), we can see Karl's hands are pressed together as if in prayer. However, in the following, slightly overhead shot, Karl is sitting with his hands in a different position.

Revealing: When Karen rips open the wrapping on her gift from Harry, in the close-up of the CD as she holds it with her right hand, it is blatantly obvious that it is not Emma Thompson's hand. Just compare it with the earlier shot of her hand when she sneaks a peak at the card signed - "Sorry I'm such a grumpy bugger.. Bad Harry."

Continuity: As Sarah is leaving Harry's office, Karl walks in and Sarah backs up towards the coat rack behind her which stands right beside the cabinet. When Sarah walks out in the next shot, the coat rack is visible through the glass wall and it is now much closer to the doorway.

Continuity: As Billy Mack appears on Ant & Dec's show, in the opening front shot of the set there are teenagers on the stands behind him and the two hosts, plus on the right of the screen, near the stands, additional kids stand on the stage clapping. In the next shot while Joe, Billy's manager, watches the monitor at the side of the stage, behind Joe the stage is visible and the extra kids standing near the stands are gone, so as to have perfect view of Billy and the hosts. However they are back in the next front shot.

Factual error: In the scene where Colin lands at the airport in Milwaukee, the sign outside the airport says "Milwaukee International." The actual name of the airport is General Mitchell International.

Audio problem: During the Christmas concert at the end, Sam's drumming doesn't match the music in some shots.

Factual error: I know it's a romantic comedy, but no way could an eleven-year-old outrun airport security, find his way around an airport without getting lost or caught and be returned to his dad without even a telling off.

Factual error: In the scene where Natalie goes to see the Prime Minister in his office, she is holding a buff coloured folder marked: 'SECRET - TREASURY DEPARTMENT'. However, folders within Government/Ministry of Defence etc are colour coded as follows: Red or Pink for Secret, Green for Confidential and Buff for Restricted & Unclassified for the obvious reason of ease of identification and security.

Continuity: When Jaime is in the lake helping Aurelia retrieve the book pages, in one shot a page is quite close behind his head and in the subsequent shot the page is at least a foot or two away.

Continuity: When Sarah and Karl arrive at her flat, she runs up first to straighten up a bit and throws her coat over a bunch of clothes on the chair. Karl then joins her upstairs and, in the wide shot as they rush towards each other, the coat is positioned differently than in the following close-up as they embrace.

Continuity: After the long day of (non) negotiations David and the US President sit on the sofas to talk. In the first wide shot the pillow stripes under the President's arm are vertical. In the following close-ups they lie horizontal, then back to vertical in the wide shot.