Continuity mistake: As Michael Douglas busts down Glenn Close's door, you to see from the outside it's not latched. But from the inside it is. (00:41:25)
Visible crew/equipment: When Dan reluctantly tells his secretary that he will accept Alex's phone call, if you look in the top left hand corner of the screen, you can see a boom microphone make a quick appearance.
Plot hole: In the kitchen, when Michael Douglas is preparing the hot water for the tea just before the final bathroom fight, there is a shot of him looking up at the ceiling and noticing the leaking water (obviously from the overflowing bathtub). But, he turns back toward the stove and continues to prepare the tea, instead of having an immediate reaction that something is wrong. It is not until the teapot whistles, and his wife screams, that he realizes something is wrong. He should have run up stairs as soon as he noticed the water leaking from the ceiling.
Continuity mistake: Michael Douglas is going home to Mount Kisco the very very long way down Riverside Drive South. Again Alex's tape hasn't skipped a beat.
Continuity mistake: When Michael Douglas is listening to Alex's tape it's midday when he enters the East River Drive underpass and comes out the sun has clearly set. Alex's tape doesn't skip a beat. (01:17:00)
Other mistake: After Michael Douglas visits his wife in the hospital he drives into New York looking for Glenn Close. During the driving scene he is seen to move the steering wheel to the left, but the car turns right.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Beth is desperately trying to find Ellen, she approaches a stopped Chevrolet Caprice wagon and rear ends it. When the camera switches to an interior shot of Beth's vehicle during the collision, the vehicle in front has changed to a Ford LTD wagon.
Continuity mistake: While eating together, Alex tells Dan that she stood up her date, and raises her hand. From the opposite angle it's lowered.
Continuity mistake: When Dan and Alex are under the rain, a black man in a gabardine passes by Dan, and a frame later passes by Alex, in the opposite direction.
Continuity mistake: Dan is having a drink with Alex and he talks about his parents' divorce. His glass swaps from being on the table to in his hand between shots.
Visible crew/equipment: This is very tough to spot, but as Michael Douglas is in his kitchen talking to Anne Archer, if you look very closely above his head you'll see a quick tiny white reflection of a piece of equipment in the glass cabinet. (00:24:30)
Visible crew/equipment: This is much easer to see on the VHS version. As Michael Douglas goes through the revolving door at his office, as it stops, you see the reflection of a crew member standing there. (00:18:35)
Continuity mistake: After Glen Close kicks Michael Douglas out of her apartment he's standing next to her bicycle holding his stuff. It can be assumed that he put the stuff on the bicycle seat because in the next shot his hands and the handlebars are empty. But later as we see him getting ready to leave again his stuff is the on handlebars. (00:34:35 - 00:37:10)
Visible crew/equipment: You see the reflection of the cameraman right in the center of the tea pot as Michael Douglas makes Anne Archer some tea before her bath. (01:49:20)
Continuity mistake: When the little girl is playing in the back yard outside the rabbit cage it's winter, not a leaf in the tree she is under. In the very next shot as they get into their car all shrubs and trees in this shot have their leaves. (01:23:10)
Revealing mistake: In the first scene where we are introduced to Alex Forrest at the bar during the cocktail party, she is almost always smoking cigarettes that are not lit. She continually dashes out ashes that aren't there and there is never any smoke coming from the cigarettes.
Continuity mistake: When Glenn Close calls Michael Douglas in the middle of the night, his clock radio reads 2:13. In the next shot, without him touching it, the clock is dimmer and has been moved so we can't see the new time. Then about a minute later, the clock radio reads 2:20.
Continuity mistake: In the famous bathtub scenes there's a close-up of Alex's feet with blood dripping on her right foot. Later when we see her in the tub the blood is in a different spot on her foot. (01:51:40 - 01:53:15)
Deliberate mistake: When Michael Douglas pretends to be hurt in the field, Glenn Close says, "You bastard," and her hair is not in the sunlight. In the very next shot it is. (00:27:00)
Continuity mistake: When the phone rings as Beth paints, Beth puts her roller in the tray and goes to answer the phone. When she returns the roller is in a different position than it was before.
Chosen answer: With questions such as this, one can either speculate, or one can go directly to the source. So, using IMDb, I looked up the names of the crew on "Fatal Attraction." The costume designer is listed as Ellen Mirojnick. The set decoration was the responsibility of George DeTittas, Sr. I found Ellen Mirojnick on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Ellenmirojnick/posts/263462080524551?comment_id=263621453841947&offset=0&total_comments=2¬if_t=feed_comment), and posed the question to her. This was the reply she gave: " (I)n our process there is always a purpose for a palette to tell a story dramatically. I chose white for her character because white is powerful and although not essentially a "color" it reflects all other colors, which would in turn reflect where we were in the story. I thought through her silhouettes and use of shades of whites, it would reflect her mood and not give away the demon she kept hidden. WHITE is powerful... As she was!" I have not yet been able to track down Mr. DeTittas for comment. But I have posed the additional question to Ms. Mirojnick regarding whether the color palette motif was a decision shared by different departments on the film. Ms. Mironjnick added the following comments: "she wears white to discuise (sic) her darkness, that somehow is revealed in certain places.. white is all things combined .. it radiatesits (sic) the confusion as if she was in an asylum, but her own."
Michael Albert