Continuity mistake: When the contents of Ramona's handbag are spilled out onto the car bonnet by the policemen, the items' positions differ between shots. (00:09:50)
Continuity mistake: When Mrs. Sheets pulls up outside the motel where the Lutz's are, her front passenger door window is rolled halfway down. Then later when Vanessa steals the car, the window is fully rolled down. (00:15:00 - 00:17:30)
Continuity mistake: When Bob and Vanessa are eating in a diner, Bob says "Yes, it's a form of senility," and a tissue which was sitting beside a plate vanishes in this shot. (00:28:20)
Continuity mistake: When Bob climbs out of the car, running away from Vanessa he runs in a straight path from the drivers seat, very far away from the van and is then shot by Vanessa. Moments later when Vanessa robs him, he is closer to the van and near the rear of it. He is in a different location and his body has also rotated. (00:46:15)
Continuity mistake: When Vanessa is sitting at a desk, opposite the two detectives (before she starts talking about what happened - it's chapter 8 on the DVD), her hands keep on changing position between shots. In one shot they're resting on the desk, then they jump to resting on her knee, then on the desk again, and so on throughout the scene. (00:52:25)
Continuity mistake: When the girls are sitting in the plastic chairs watching the TV in the jail hall, in one shot Mesquita bends down and leans against the only empty plastic chair. Then in the following shot she's not there. (01:08:20)
Continuity mistake: At the gas station, Vanessa comes out of the bathroom, slices the cop and kicks him to the ground. She has no blood on her front. The shot switches to the cop's view and there is blood on the front of her shirt and face. (01:21:30)
Continuity mistake: Brooke Shields runs to shoot herself in the bathroom, and the bathroom door is hinged on the left side of the door frame. The two detectives enter the bathroom and the door is now hinged on the right side of the it. (01:23:55)
Continuity mistake: When Vanessa is walking down the path to her grandma's caravan, her shadow changes from extremely long to very short between shots. (01:29:15)
Continuity mistake: When Vanessa is fighting Bob, they roll over the bed, and a tray of medicine bottles slides off a bedside table. In a later shot, the tray and some of the medicine bottles is visibly back on the table. (01:31:45)
Continuity mistake: When Vanessa hits Bob with a plant, Bob's pink hairnet is off. It's back on in the next shot. (01:31:55)
Continuity mistake: In the car when they are driving, Bob slices off Vanessa's entire ponytail; it remains short afterwards during her interview with the two policeman but then in the courtroom when she meets Bob again, she has her hair in a reasonably long ponytail.
Continuity mistake: When the social worker pulls up, there is no christmas-tree air-freshener hanging from her mirror. When Vanessa nicks the car, there's a christmas-tree air-freshener hanging from the little black windshield mirror.
Continuity mistake: When Bob slices off Vanessa's hair it's plaited. When it drops out of the car with him when he's scrabbling away after being shot in the neck, it is still a neat plait. When the detective finds the ponytail afterwards it's a just a loose chunk of hair.
Continuity mistake: When Vanessa leaves Bob for dead, she has no blood on her face. She goes to a cafe and suddenly there is blood all over her hands and face; the amount on her face suggests it would have been visible to viewers when she left Bob. The light wasn't dark enough to hide so many stains.
Continuity mistake: When Rhonda and Vanessa chat, while they sit on the jail beds, Rhonda's arms/hands keep changing position between back and front shots. They could be resting in her lap, then up fiddling with her hair, then she could have her head resting on her hands etc. It randomly changes throughout the scene.
Answer: Even experts in a given field occasionally like to consult a text on the subject.
Tailkinker ★