Corrected entry: On the tape of the 911 call regarding the murder a boy says "They want to know her name" to a supposed accomplice. However one of the two boys who are accused of the phone call and murder at the end of the film is deaf, and the two boys communicate with sign language - the boy who could talk would never say anything to the other. (01:44:30 - 02:01:10)
Corrected entry: No DNA test was conducted on the blood found in David's car most, especially the trunk. Had this been done it would have conclusively shown that the blood was not Penn's daughter; and possibly saved David's life.
Correction: Ultimately DNA testing would have been performed. However, at this stage in the investigation they (cops) were trying to get Dave to confess or crack under the pressure of them (cops) knowing there was blood found in the trunk.
Corrected entry: In the parade scene at the end of the movie there is a child in a stroller holding a SpongeBob SquarePants doll. SpongeBob SquarePants was not even thought about at the time the movie took place.
Correction: The parade scene at the end is set in the present day, so there's no reason why a child wouldn't be holding a contemporary doll.
Correction: Except for the opening scenes, the movie is set in the time it was filmed, circa 2003. When do you think it was set?
The movie takes place in 2000, just like the book. We know that Dave was kidnapped at age 11, 25 years earlier, which we know had to be in 1975, as he began high school in 1978 according to the film. However, that doesn't make this submitted mistake valid as SpongeBob came out in 1999 and was such a success that they were already making toys by the year 2000, so a kid still could have had a SpongeBob doll even in 2000.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Tim Robbins is drinking with the two hoodlums, Sean Penn walks up to the table and says to Tim Robbins: "Drink up, Tim". Tim's character is called "Dave".
Correction: No, Jimmy (Sean Penn) says, "Drink up, Dave." He says it in a very low voice but he definitely says, "Dave", not "Tim". And the subtitles match as well.
Corrected entry: When Jimmy is pouring a drink for Dave's wife in the kitchen, he begins pouring from a frontal shot. It moves to a shot over his shoulder, and back to the front shot again, where he finally stops pouring. All this time, we can hear the liquor continuously being poured, but if he had poured for that long, the glass would have overflowed. When he finally places the bottle down on the table, the glass is less than half full. (00:54:25)
Correction: So it's clear that he was pouring slowly.
At the speed he was pouring, the glass would have been much more full than it was.
Corrected entry: The scene where the girls are dancing on the bar is filmed at a bar in Jamaica Plain which is completely on the other side of Boston from East Boston where the film is supposed to take place. It's not exactly a "neighborhood" bar for people living in East Boston.
Correction: That doesn't mean it couldn't have been intentional. If you were running away from home soon and wanted to party, would you go to the neighborhood bar? Dave also didn't necessarily have to be "in the neighborhood".
Corrected entry: When Tim Robbins is in the bar with the girls dancing on the bar, he and his friend are watching the Red Sox game on TV. The audio game commentary heard is actually that of a Red Sox radio broadcast, not television. The two voices heard are those of Joe and Jerry, they only do radio broadcasts. (00:14:40)
Correction: Some places play games and radio commentaries at the same time. My bar sometimes does that, if the TV commentary is useless.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Sean and Whitey are walking and talking (just after Jimmy and Annabeth leave the hospital), Sean states that himself, Jimmy and Roy were childhood friends. He should have stated that himself, Jimmy and Dave were childhood friends.
Correction: Sean says..."myself, Jimmy and BOYLE were childhood friends", not ROY. Boyle is Dave's last name.
Corrected entry: They keep mentioning that parks are State Police jurisdiction. They're not. Boston-area parks are run by the MDC, and crimes would be prosecuted by either the Municipal Police or the Boston Police. Only crimes in state parks would be prosecuted by the State Police.
Correction: The MDC (Metropolitan District Commission) is a state agency. They used to have their own police department, the MDC Police. However, they were merged in with the State Police in 1991, along with 2 other police divisions. Therefore, all MDC parks are under state police jurisdiction.
Corrected entry: When David(as a young boy) is told to get into the car the second time by the man, the man says to him "Get the f*** in." and pounds his fist on the car. In the flashback of the very same scene, the man says "Get in". Maybe flashbacks have mistakes as well?
Correction: Couldnt it be that he REMEMBERED incorrectly? After all it is his memory and not a movie in his head...
Corrected entry: The young boys accidentally shoot Jimmy's daughter, then chase her down and kill her to keep her from identifying them. If they are so afraid of detection and if the girl's already dead, what on earth could be their purpose in calling 9-1-1?
Correction: It was an accident and they were scared. Either they had enough conscience to call it in so the body wouldn't just lay there and rot, or they called to report it, but chickened out, especially when asked for their name.
Corrected entry: At the end of the movie, Tim Robbins is trying to convince Sean Penn and his crew that he didn't kill the girl, that in fact he killed a child molester. The molester's body was found the next day behind a dive bar. Why didn't Robbins just take them to the dead body?
Correction: Even if he would have suggested that, they wouldn't have believed him anyway. Penn truly believed that Robbins killed his daughter.
Corrected entry: Why didn't anyone bring up the fact that Tim Robbins didn't fire a gun recently? Don't they always look for gun residue on suspects?
Correction: David was not a suspect for quite some time after the crime. Gun Shot Residue "GSR" if any would have long disappeared. FYI, merely washing one hands usually removes GSR.
Correction: He isn't deaf, they say multiple times he is mute. It is also implied at the end that he may not be mute at all because his brother keeps yelling "Speak, I know you can talk!"