Revealing mistake: Midway through the film, Carol is on a bus heading to Melvin's apartment in Manhattan. She is going to tell him that she won't sleep with him after he has given her son free medical care. She is in a pensive mood and the camera pulls out showing her in the window. As the camera pulls out further, the readable sign on the side of the bus says "not in service." (01:02:55)
Continuity mistake: When Melvin gets up to go give Simon some Chinese soup, the clock reads 3:22am. The next scene in Carol's apartment is supposedly later on the same night, yet the babysitter has just arrived, her child is still up, and she and her mom are getting ready to go out for the night (even telling the babysitter that there's pizza in the freezer they can cook later). We know it is supposed to be the same night because in the ensuing scene, Frank tells Melvin he heard he "brought Simon chicken soup last night." (01:04:25)
Continuity mistake: When Melvin answers the door when Carol comes over in the rain, his hair is standing up crazily. In the very next shot, it is neatly pressed down - he didn't have time to run his hands through his hair to fix it between shots. (01:04:30)
Continuity mistake: When we see Carol writing the thankyou note, the page is numbered (23), there are 8 lines of writing on the page and she says she is on the last page. When she is looking up the word 'conscience' in the dictionary, the paper is visible again but it is a different sheet - there is no number and there are only 4 lines of writing. It is the page she is about to write on because the last words written are 'have it on my ' - 'conscience' following this phrase makes sense. (01:09:00)
Continuity mistake: When Melvin and Frank are talking about taking Simon to Baltimore the flowers on the table are yellow and red. When Carol is reading her note to Melvin, they're orange and purple. The colour isn't off because Carol's top looks the same as before. (01:16:00 - 01:17:30)
Visible crew/equipment: When Carol leaves by bus for the trip to Baltimore she waves Spence good-bye. At the end of the scene there is a reflection of a cameraman in the window. (01:19:30)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where the three of them are driving to Baltimore, Carol has a zit on her face. In the next shot it is gone. (01:26:20 - 01:27:30)
Continuity mistake: Carol drives the Saab convertible to Baltimore, and she expresses to pull over the car, the rooftop is down. When Carol actually pulls over the Saab the car has the roof on. (01:26:40)
Continuity mistake: After the trio's arrival in Baltimore, Carol is in her room placing a call home. When she is first pictured placing the call she has a pager clipped to her jeans. It is gone, never to reappear, in the next shot. (01:30:40)
Continuity mistake: In the restaurant scene with Melvin and Carol, when she is taking her drink from the bar to their table with the help of a waiter, when she first picks up her drink there is very little in it, but when she takes the drink from the waiter and places it on the table it is practically full. (01:33:25)
Continuity mistake: When Melvin and Carol enter the restaurant on their trip, a certain song is playing (I can't recall the song). Melvin leaves to buy a jacket, returns, and just after they are seated, you hear the female band leader say, "Here's a special song for...", and it's the same song they played 10 minutes ago. (01:34:00 - 01:38:15)
Continuity mistake: After Melvin orders crabs his tie knot keeps changing back and forth between the striped and the checkered pattern of his tie. (01:35:20)
Continuity mistake: Before Carol takes a bath she tries to help Simon out of his shirt. In spite of being handicapped by his cast he insists on doing it by himself, although with difficulties, but he would never have managed to get out of his black pants into his jammie shorts between shots. (01:41:40)
Continuity mistake: In Simon's sketch, Carol is lying the opposite way to the way she is really lying. (01:49:00)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Simon is sketching/drawing Carol, he rips off the hand piece of his cast so he can move his hand freely. When they are getting out of the car once they get home, you can see that the hand piece of cast that Simon ripped off is back on his hand and the cast is undamaged. (01:49:30 - 01:54:40)
Continuity mistake: When Carol apologizes to Melvin over the phone her watch rotates around the wrist while she is holding the receiver. (01:56:05)
Continuity mistake: When we see Melvin's bedroom, when Simon is looking for the dog, the shelf above his bed is half filled with books and bottles of water. By the end of the phonecall with Carol, the shelf is completely filled. (01:58:15 - 02:01:20)
Other mistake: Right at the end of the movie Melvin and Carol walk by a bakery. Suddenly the lights go on showing staff at work like sweeping the floor, indicating that they must have been doing this in the dark. (02:07:55)
Continuity mistake: In the end when Melvin and Carol are kissing, his arm is around her neck. This arm changes from one arm to the other in a split second. (02:12:25)
Continuity mistake: When Melvin is making a phone call outside the Mobil station, the price on the sign above the phone booth is $1.13/gallon. As Carol comes out of the station, the sign behind her shows $1.14/gallon. When the car pulls away from the station, it is back to $1.13/gallon.
Answer: It has everything to do with his mental illness. His OCD condition has kept him isolated with anti-social tendencies. He just finds it difficult to directly interact with people.
raywest