Shallow Hal

Shallow Hal (2001)

46 mistakes - chronological order

(14 votes)

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: In the scene where Hal and his best friend are having a chat at the bar, Hal's best friend's beer refills after every scene when he takes a drink of it. (00:06:50)

Continuity mistake: In the scene with Hal and Mauricio in the bar, they both have a beer. In the shot where Hal asks if things are okay between Mauricio and his girlfriend, Hal takes a drink from his beer and Mauricio is holding his beer down by his chest. In the next shot Hal is suddenly not drinking his beer anymore and it is out of sight and now Mauricio's beer is by his mouth. (00:06:55)

Hamster

Continuity mistake: When Jack and Dave are talking about the promotion, in a shot behind Dave, Dave has his hand raised, but in a front shot his hand is down on the table. (00:09:55)

Hamster

Continuity mistake: After the elevator stops, Tony puts his right hand on the top of Hal's arm but when the shot changes it is on Hal's shoulder. (00:12:50)

Hamster

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

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

Visible crew/equipment: When Hal goes outside after his special "seminar" in the elevator with Tony Robbins, he hails a taxi and walks over to open the door when he notices that a woman is also opening the door. As the shot pans back from the taxi and he is apologizing to her, you can clearly see a boom microphone reflected in the triangular window, moving back and forth. (00:17:00)

Hamster

Continuity mistake: After Hal asks Katrina on a date, and he thinks she's messing him about, Katrina takes a pen from her bag. In one shot she holds the pen so the nib is upright with no lid on, yet in the next shot she is holding it the other way round, and the lid is on. (00:19:45)

Hamster

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: After two men insult Rosemary, Hal goes back into the restaurant. In one shot the restaurant door is nearly closed behind him, shot change and the door is much wider open. (00:30:55)

Hamster

Continuity mistake: This mistake happens when Rosemary and Hal make up for the first time. Rosemary is standing in the doorway and she is holding a tray containing two coffees. As the shots goes from Hal to Rosemary, you can clearly see the coffees switch sides on the tray. (00:44:30)

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

Revealing mistake: When Rosemary is carrying Hal out of the front door if you look closely at his shirt you can see it moving around from the wires that are keeping him suspended. (01:40:00)

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)

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)

Shallow Hal mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Hal's co-workers bring him a cake for his promotion, Rosemary takes a slice out for herself. They change shots a couple times, and the size of the piece missing from the cake changes several times, and the layers of the cake change as well.

Shallow Hal mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Hal is confronting the two guys that made fun of Rosie he points to Rosie outside the restaurant and her shoes change from brown and black clogs (which is what she was wearing throughout the scene) to a plain black slide. Watch, it is totally obvious because they show her shoes several times before they suddenly change.

Continuity mistake: At the DoubleDoor Inn, where Rosie is seen dancing with the guy with spina bifida, we see the other guests applaud and approach them once they have finished dancing. And if you look closely you will see that Hal joins the crowd at the right hand side of your screen. But as it cuts to the next shot where Rosie is walking away from the crowd, we see Hal catch up with her from the opposite side where he was standing with the crowd.

More quotes from Shallow Hal

Trivia: Brianna Gardner, who played Cadence the little burn victim girl, is the daughter of the movie's makeup artist Tony Gardner. She can be seen with him in the movie's closing credits.

Jeff Swanson

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

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.