Love Actually
Love Actually mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Billy Mack is trying to sing the song correctly at the beginning, his hair is messy and sticking out from under his headset, but during his third attempt in a closeup his hair is neat and combed back under the headset. (00:03:05)

Hamster

Love Actually mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When David, the Prime Minister is introduced to the household staff, his tie changes between shots, while talking to Natalie and then when he walks into his study and closes the door. (00:08:40)

Continuity mistake: When the Prime Minister has met Natalie, he walks off, and you can see his female assistant walking ahead of him. Then the Prime Minister turns and looks back at Natalie. When it cuts back to the Prime Minister again, the female assistant hasn't got very far and re-walks where she walked in the previous shot. (00:08:45)

Hamster

Continuity mistake: When Colin speaks with Nancy at Juliet and Peter's wedding reception he puts the 'dead baby finger' hors d'oeuvre into his mouth in the first shot, but when he spits it back out into his fingers in the next shot, not having chewed or swallowed any, the hors d'oeuvre is quite a bit smaller. (00:12:45)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: During the scene between John and Judy in the classy hotel set, as they are preparing to stimulate sex against the bedpost, Judy removes all her outer layers of clothing and throws them on the bed. In following shots you can see the arrangement of clothing on the bed has changed. (00:14:00)

Hamster

Continuity mistake: When Mia is talking to Harry from near the doorway to his office, just before Sarah turns up for her talk with him, the office chair behind Mia has been wheeled around. There's nobody moving enough in the scene to account for it at that point, though Sarah comes past moments later on her way in to see Harry. (00:17:25)

elleblue

Continuity mistake: Sarah walks into Harry's office, sits down and much of her hair is tucked behind her ears in the side shot. In the next few front shots her hair is first draped straight down, then tucked a bit, and when she stands up in the side shot her hair is positioned as the first side shot, all without her ever touching her hair. (00:18:30)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: After Sarah has called at Harry's office, Harry prepares to open his office door to see her out. The camera cuts back to Sarah for a moment, then back to the camera angle on Harry as she walks to the door. In that short space of time, the sliding cupboard doors have changed their configuration, and the blinds in the upper left of the frame have partially closed. (00:18:45)

elleblue

Love Actually mistake picture

Continuity mistake: As Sarah is leaving Harry's office, Karl walks in and Sarah backs up towards the coat rack behind her which stands right beside the cabinet. When Sarah walks out in the next shot, the coat rack is visible through the glass wall and it is now much closer to the doorway. (00:19:40)

Super Grover

Visible crew/equipment: When Harry is talking to Mia about arranging the Christmas party and who will be going, etc., in closeups of him talking you can clearly see the crew screens reflected in his glasses. (00:25:10)

Hamster

Love Actually mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Daniel is upset about his wife, his friend, Karen, puts her arm on his shoulder as he starts to cry and you can see her arm whilst he is crying. Then the shot cuts away and his arm has grabbed her arm, but it's too quick for him to have moved it. (00:27:40)

Continuity mistake: When Sam and his dad are sitting talking by the river, there is a shot from behind them and a girl walks past. It then cuts to a close up and the same girl walks past them again. (00:28:20)

mandy gasson

Continuity mistake: As Billy Mack appears on Ant & Dec's show, in the opening front shot of the set there are teenagers on the stands behind him and the two hosts, plus on the right of the screen, near the stands, additional kids stand on the stage clapping. In the next shot while Joe, Billy's manager, watches the monitor at the side of the stage, behind Joe the stage is visible and the extra kids standing near the stands are gone, so as to have perfect view of Billy and the hosts. However they are back in the next front shot. (00:33:55)

Super Grover

Love Actually mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Billy Mack is appearing on Ant & Dec's TV show to promote his Christmas CD, which is competing against a CD by the group Blue, he uses a marker to draw on his competitors' picture. He draws a voice bubble and a derogatory comment. The shape and points of the voice bubble have changed when the camera cuts back to Billy after showing a shot of his manager shaking his head. (00:34:50)

Continuity mistake: When Aurelia is first introduced, there are several short shots showing only her, with a car visible over her left shoulder (to the right of the frame). At first the brown sun-lit dirt under the car extends out towards the camera, then in the next shot there's much less of it visible. It's clearer again in the next shot of her, and less so in the following shot again. (00:36:40)

elleblue

Character mistake: When Jamie is first speaking to Aurelia, he says "molto bueno", which the housekeeper woman tells him is Spanish. 'Molto' is actually Italian. (00:38:30)

Love Actually mistake picture

Continuity mistake: After the long day of (non) negotiations David and the US President sit on the sofas to talk. In the first wide shot the pillow stripes under the President's arm are vertical. In the following close-ups they lie horizontal, then back to vertical in the wide shot. (00:41:15)

Super Grover

Love Actually mistake picture

Continuity mistake: During David and the US President's press conference, the people standing near Natalie at the back of the room change in the close-ups, semi close-ups and wide shots. (00:42:50)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: In France, when Jamie's phone rings he and Aurelia try to find where it's hidden in the paper mess on the desk. As they search, the notebooks and papers differ greatly in the wide shot, the following close-up when Aurelia finds the phone and in the next wide shot. (00:47:10)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: When Aurelia and Jamie are drinking hot drinks after trying to save his manuscript, she gets up and heads off to get changed. The blanket around her shifts numerous times between shots, from first covering her shoulder, then slipping off down her arm, back to covering it and then again back to not covering it. (00:49:10)

Karen: Tell me, what would you do in my position?
Harry: What position is that?
Karen: Imagine your husband bought a gold necklace and come Christmas gave it to somebody else...
Harry: Oh, Karen...
Karen: Would you wait around to find out if it's just a necklace, or if it's sex and a necklace, or if worst of all it's a necklace and love? Would you stay, knowing life would always be a little bit worse? Or would you cut and run?
Harry: Oh, God. I am so in the wrong. The classic fool.
Karen: Yes, but you've also made a fool out of me, and you've made the life I lead foolish too.

More quotes from Love Actually

Trivia: Any viewers outside of Britain might not get the joke when Billy Mack isn't sure which one is Ant or Dec. They are very well known in the UK, and dominate Saturday night telly. The joke refers to the fact that even though they are popular, a lot of people don't know which one's which.

More trivia for Love Actually

Question: Even if Karl and Sarah don't get together at the end, I couldn't see what exactly was stopping them?

Answer: It's because of the complications that Sarah was having with her troubled brother. Apart from that, who's to say they don't eventually get together?

Hamster

In the follow-up short film (the Red Nose Day special) we learn she eventually gets her happy ending with a man played by Patrick Dempsey.

Answer: The end of the movie is not the end of the story.

More questions & answers from Love Actually

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