Factual error: When John Cusack puts Springsteen on his LP-player, he places the needle at the start of the record. The song that plays is the studio version of "The River." Therefore, the album has to be "The River," which is a double album, but "The River" is not at the start of either of the two LPs, but is the last song on LP #1. (00:18:10)
Factual error: In one of his first appearances, Proulx the Architect is using a modern pen on a pad of paper when taking notes.
Factual error: When Dora and Paul walk into find the newborn baby kitten on the floor, it shows what a kitten would actually look like if it was newborn. However, after they save it and are with all the kittens later on, the kittens are walking around and they have their eyes open. Kittens don't open their eyes or walk for at least 2 weeks after being born. In the movie, they had just been born.
Factual error: When Ryan and Jennifer are hanging out at their lookout spot, over the Golden Gate Bridge, they are looking at the bridge from the Marin County side. For those of you who aren't familiar with Bay Area geography, the distance between Berkeley and Marin County is about 15 or 20 miles, yet the two refer to walking back to campus a few times.
Factual error: When the second round of the tournament is starting and Bagger Vance is telling Rannulph Junuh about 'the field', just after Bobby Jones has taken his tee-shot, Bagger hands Junuh a ball and tee. The tee is a red plastic 'castle' style tee. Apart from being illegal in tournament play, I'm pretty sure they weren't around in the 1920's.
Factual error: Sam has really bad running form for a supposed former track star. She over-pumps her arms, and looks like she's trying too hard. Even seasoned runners with injuries don't run like that.
Factual error: In the bowling alley scene, Jack's friend tells him that Kate is well-liked in all of Union County, but in the movie, Jack and Kate live in Teaneck, which is in Bergen County.
Factual error: When Elliot is the sensitive guy he picks up the guitar to sing a song to Allison. The guitar has a capo on it. During the song Elliot is changing cords and finger placement. He makes a cord above the capo. This would not be possible since the capo effectively cuts off the strings at the point of the capo. Any finger movement above the capo would not change the chord at all. (00:43:00)
Factual error: I live in Chicago, and live near where they filmed the outside shots. Every time we see Mel coming out of his apartment, the address says 2400 Lakeview Drive. However, anyone who lives by here knows that this particular building has no balconies, and Mel repeatedly went out, or looked over his balcony. (00:05:20 - 00:43:00)
Factual error: Female college basketball players are wearing uniform numbers 9 and 17. Not possible, since the NCAA prohibits players from wearing numbers ending in digits higher than 5.
Factual error: In the sword fight between Hamlet and Laertes at the end, both characters are wearing jackets of the kind only used in foil fencing, to differentiate between a hit on target and a hit off target. The line in the script is "These foils have all a length?" but the weapons they hold are actually epees - which have a different target and different rules. Laertes' jacket is not properly done up, and he should have been penalised by the referee for removing his mask without permission. And a fencing piste should be 14 metres long - the one in this film is much too short.
Factual error: When Snow Plough Man drives his truck around clearing snow, he honks the horn of his truck by pushing the button on the steering wheel. The sound that is made is an air horn. In reality the button on the steering wheel of a truck honks an electric horn like a car. The air horn is actuated by a rope or cable hanging from the ceiling.
Factual error: Ben Stiller buys Champagne in a drug store, yet in NY the only legal place to buy wine/champagne is a liquor store.
Factual error: The hospital scenes were shot at Newham University Hospital, which was (and still is) a modern, well-equipped hospital. Everything in the scenes is blatantly anachronistic: a scene set in 1968 is full of furniture, fittings, and advanced medical equipment that is from the very late Nineties when this scene was shot.
Factual error: In the scene where Violet gets her tapes back outside her apartment, she looks at an envelope with HER name as the sending address and the company as the return address. This is possible, however, the envelope would not be stamped "unsolicited mail" if it was re-packaged by the company. An unsolicited stamp would be there, like all the other envelopes, if it was being returned to her in the original envelope, with her name as the RETURN address, instead of the sending address. (01:19:25)
Factual error: When Novalee is locked inside Wal-mart during a storm she looks out the front. Water is streaming down the front doors. The problem with this is that the doors of the Wal-mart are very far under an awning and would never see that sort of rain. The awning is shown a minute or so before and is a standard Wal-mart feature. (00:16:45)
Factual error: Apparently, Han escapes from a prison in Hong Kong. Then why are the guards speaking Mandarin, which is spoken in China and Taiwan? The guards should have been speaking in Cantonese, which is Hong Kong's dialect. This was probably to convenience Jet Li, who speaks Mandarin but probably little Cantonese.
Factual error: Prior to the Yom Kippur sermon where Rabbi Stiller is asking for forgiveness for not revealing his relationship, the cantor sing the Kol Nidrei prayer, which is only sung once a year on Yom Kippur eve. Totally obvious mistake to anyone who knows anything about Judaism. Clearly Stiller and the script writers do not.
Factual error: John Grady Cole's father says that the last time he spoke with Cole's mother was in San Diego in 1942. His lighter has a 3rd Infantry Division badge which means he fought in the European theater of WW2, not the Pacific Theater.
Factual error: During the multiple hospital scenes, the doctors direct their updates to Will, ignoring the closest family member, her grandmother. Will's relationship with Charlotte is not even a year old. No hospitals or doctors would ever discuss this condition with anyone outside the immediate family, including and especially the Cleveland Clinic.
Suggested correction: The film was set after the Chinese takeover of Hong Kong so the official language of Hong Kong is now Mandarin as it is in the rest of China.
The principal language of Hong Kong is standard Cantonese, spoken by 88.9% of the population at home daily. As an official language, it is used in education, broadcasting, government administration, legislation and judiciary, as well as for daily communication. As a result of its predominance throughout the community, Cantonese is virtually the exclusive language of official discourse at all levels of the executive, legislature and courts of Hong Kong. Mandarin has increased since 97 but still not the official language.
The official language of Hong Kong is "Chinese." Cantonese is a dialect of Chinese, and not a separately set official language of Hong Kong. While many people communicate in their local dialects, it's not unreasonable to assume they could also be communicating in Mandarin, especially government officials, and especially if they are law enforcement. Not a plot hole or a mistake here.