Corrected entry: In one scene Cole's mom says she won the PA lottery and quit her jobs. Later, during the car accident scene she tells Cole she missed his play because she has two jobs and they're very important. What happened to her winning the lottery?
Corrected entry: What does the ghost of the girl who was poisoned need Haley Joel for? She gets him to follow her into the bedroom, where she pushes the box containing the videotape of the poisoning to him. Well, if she can physically manipulate objects and push the box to him, why doesn't she just put the box somewhere for her dad to see? She could pick up a pen and write, "Dear Dad, Mom poisoned me, watch this tape for proof." She doesn't need him at all.
Correction: Her ability to move objects is probably very limited; it's one thing to move a box a short distance, another to pick up a pen and write. Also, just moving the tape to somewhere her dad would find it might not work. Her mother might have found it, or her dad might not have watched it. Cole was her best bet.
Corrected entry: Cole was the only one who could see the ghosts in his apartment. Dr. Malcolm Crowe turns out to be a ghost. So why could his mother see the doctor? She introduces him to Cole near the beginning of the film.
Correction: No, she does not see Dr. Crowe. In fact, she never speaks to Malcolm, she never even looks at him. She is speaking only to her son at her apartment, when Malcolm arrives for his 'appointment'.
What I'm wondering is how did Malcolm get in the apartment? Obviously Cole's mother didn't let him in, and Cole himself wasn't at home yet.
Ghosts are not bound by pesky things such as walls and doors.
Malcolm is a ghost and "sees what he wants to see." He was in the apartment because that's where he wanted to be and, being a ghost, a door isn't going to stop him.
Correction: I think one would have to assume that as well as "only seeing what they want to see" ghosts exist in a way that they are strictly in the moment, and only sometimes. You are at your computer reading this, but you are probably not reflecting on how you got here, how you walked up and turned on your computer etc. Ghosts just start a scene and feel it is perfectly normal for them. This is consistent throughout the whole movie, with no ghost walking around doing nothing or trying to talk to people as if they were alive.
Corrected entry: Why did Kyra (the dead girl) continue to eat the food that she knew her mother had poisoned? And since she had evidence of this while she was still alive, why did she wait until after she was dead to reveal it to anyone? One could argue that she didn't want to disobey her mother, or get her in trouble, but she told on her eventually, didn't she?
Correction: She continued to eat the food because she DIDN'T know that her mother poisoned it. The video tape was taping Kyra's puppet show and it was by pure coincidence that it taped her mother poisoning her food.
Corrected entry: I was wondering - was this movie made by the same people who made 12 Monkeys? In 12 Monkeys, Bruce Willis plays a guy named "Cole" and at one time he says, "All I see are dead people" there's even red symbology and a surprising end. In this movie, the boy is named, "Cole" and says, "I see dead people," and you know the rest...
Correction: And both films take place in Philadelphia. But the answer is no, the two films were not made by the same production company or people.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Cole and his mother are stuck in traffic behind the accident, it's a two lane street, one in each direction. Their lane is obviously backed up. But why is the other lane backed up as well? If anything, that lane should be empty, since they would stop traffic at the point of the accident for that lane, not allowing cars to continue. There's no reason for traffic to be stopped once it's past the accident.
Correction: If you look at the scene very carefully and very slowly, you can see that there is in fact a car (white) which has blocked traffic in that direction. The car is pulling through that lane and turning left, to enter the lane occupied by the main characters That car cannot enter that lane (i.e. toward the accident) because that lane is backed up (due to the accident). So, there actually is an explanation in the scene for why that lane is backed up.
Gridlock.
Corrected entry: I find it hard to believe that if Malcolm thought he was treating a patient, he wouldn't try to communicate with the parent, thus he would have figured out something wasn't right because she wouldn't have responded to him.
Correction: The same thing could be said of his day to day interactions with the entire world. He doesn't use the bathroom anymore, he doesn't eat, he doesn't sleep. He has convinced himself that he is not dead and so his psyche ignores all evidence to the contrary. This is not a plot hole, it's a plot point.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Cole and his mother are sitting in traffic (due to an accident ahead)and Cole tells his mom he wants to share his secret, the mom's bangs and right side of her hair moves as if there is wind, even though all the windows are rolled up.
Correction: The driver side window is open for the entire scene.
Corrected entry: In the second scene showing Cole entering his house via key, you can see he uses his left hand to unlock the door, yet he hands the key to his mom with his right hand.
Correction: Switching the keys between his hands would be a simple and virtually instantaneous movement.
Corrected entry: Malcolm isn't reflected in the door handle in that famous shot of Cole's hand reaching for it. I think this was done on purpose.
Correction: In the DVD version, you can plainly see Malcolm's reflection when Cole reaches for the doorknob. You can't see his face, but that would be out of the range of the reflection. You can see his left side.
Corrected entry: According to the DVD commentary, the temperature in the movie only dropped when angry ghosts were around (which is why the temperature didn't change when Malcolm was around for most of the movie.) But he didn't seem angry at the very end, and yet the temperature was dropping; his wife was shivering in the cold up to the end.
Correction: The DVD commentary says the temperature drops if a ghost is upset or angry. At the end, Malcolm discovers his true nature - enough to make anybody upset.
I would think that this could happen in terms of the confusion and emotion finally figuring out you're dead.
Corrected entry: Kyra's hand can be seen under the bed just before reaching out for Cole.
Correction: She was under the bed, he couldn't see her, and the fact that we can see her hand just moments before really isn't a mistake. She is there waiting for him.
Corrected entry: Cole tells Bruce Willis his secret and then asks Bruce Willis not to tell anyone. If Cole knows Bruce Willis is dead and invisible to everyone else, who is Willis going to tell?
Corrected entry: In the scene where Cole tells his mother his secret, you can see that the car next to her in the opposite lane has no one driving it.
Correction: The car next to her is parked. Therefore no driver is necessary.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Cole tells his mother his secret, all the cars stuck in traffic have Pennsylvania inspection stickers on the lower part of the windshield. However, the car that Cole and his mother are in does not. (01:31:25)
Correction: It is not unrealistic to believe that the car was simply not inspected.
Speaking as someone who lives in a state that requires stickers such as these, it is practically unheard of to see a vehicle without inspection stickers of any kind. Even brand new vehicles sold on lots in Pennsylvania are inspected and have the stickers placed on their windshields before anyone even buys them. Plenty of people drive with expired inspection stickers (Pennsylvania requires a vehicle inspection every year), but it is exceedingly rare to see a Pennsylvania vehicle with no inspection sticker at all. Driving without inspection stickers would risk getting pulled over by the police every single time you drive in the state. While it is technically not impossible for a Pennsylvania resident to have a car without inspection stickers, it is so uncommon that its omission here is definitely an oversight by the filmmakers and still should count as a mistake. It would be similar as having a vehicle with no license plate at all; while technically not impossible doing so would be an act of incredible stupidity that would make the character driving the car seem ridiculously unrealistic were it not explained by the plot.
Corrected entry: When Malcolm is outside Cole's building before they speak for the first time, he reviews notes with Cole's name at the top of a page that contained circled symptoms. We see a close-up of the same page in a later shot and can see that it contains notes of their first discussion in the church. But he could not have taken these notes, as he hasn't yet spoken to Cole at the time he is first reviewing it.
Correction: The first notes page is from his referral - he circled certain things that stuck out to him. After talking to Cole, he later added more notes.
Corrected entry: In the "Stuttering Stanley" scene in the classroom, the boom mike makes a prominent appearance over the teacher's head.
Correction: I didn't see the mike. I saw the hardware that holds up the map on the wall. Would you please be more specific as to when the mike is visible in that scene?
Corrected entry: At the end of the film Malcolm Crowe comes down the stairs to the living room. The camera is at a low angle looking up from the living room floor toward the vestibule area at the foot of the stairs. There is a leather covered sofa and two overstuffed leather chairs crammed side by side to fit into the space. Crowe's wife is slouched in one of the chairs. The camera changes to above, the wife falls asleep and drops Crowe's ring, which now rolls over open floor boards. Where did all the furniture go?
Correction: The only furniture visible (related to this "mistake") is the couch on which she is sleeping and the couch which he sits on. There is plenty of space between them for the shot to happen and we aren't shown anything to be in between the two couches.
Corrected entry: When Cole comes home from school before they play "the game", when he opens the door you can see that it is night outside, but when the shot faces Malcolm, you can see the daylight coming in from outside the window, behind him.
Correction: The door behind Cole doesn't lead directly to the outdoors. It leads to a dark hallway.
Corrected entry: Cole can only see the dead people and doesn't witness the manner of their death. Why are the three people depicted as still hanging? They should be walking around with maybe strained necks.
Correction: They probably can't get down. Objects with people when they died seem to remain afterwards.
Correction: They are playing a game saying outrageous things. The mother didn't really win the lottery or quit her jobs, or swim in the public fountain, and Cole didn't get picked first for the baseball team and hit a grand slam and get carried around on his teammates' shoulders.
jimba