Continuity mistake: When Edward is having his speech and says "To catch an uncatchable woman is to offer her a wedding ring." he is holding a glass. When Sandra approaches him, at first we see from behind Edward that he is holding his glass down. When it cuts to them about to hug, he has his glass by her shoulders and when it cuts again the glass is by her waist. (00:03:50)
Factual error: Just before Edward Bloom parachutes on his secret mission during the Korean War (1950-1953), he looks at his wristwatch. The camera shot of his wristwatch shows the second hand advancing one entire second at a time, indicative of a quartz watch. The quartz watch would not be invented until 1960 by Bulova. Prior to that watches used an escapement movement in which the second hand "tics" at a finer and smoother rate.
Suggested correction: Remember that what we are seeing is William's mental picture of the stories his father told him. He never lived in a time without watch movement like that and therefore would think it moved like that.
Deliberate mistake: Instead of being a specific language, Edward has an English to Asian dictionary. I've heard this was done to prevent a particular time period from being established. (01:12:55)
Other mistake: When Will's mother steps into the bathtub where his father is already lying in, the camera switches between both persons and the water level (in relation to the bathtub edge) on each person's side is on a different height. Yet when both persons are shown, we can see that the bathtub edge is fully horizontal, so the water level should be the same on both sides. (01:25:00)
Continuity mistake: When playing football, Edward vaults over the guy stepping on his back. In the far off shot looking at the pile there is someone in front of the guy he vaults off of. When it does a close up of him there's no one in front of him so he ends up eating grass. (00:20:25)
Continuity mistake: When the nude lady jumps into the lake we can see Edward's hand reach out at the bottom of the screen. When it cuts both his hands are under water. (00:34:00)
