Continuity mistake: In one of the last scenes, Cate Blanchett is standing in the doorway of her son's room. She is wearing a blue striped dress. When she walks into the room, she's wearing a floral dress.
Continuity mistake: Annie takes the photo album from her sleeping son's arms and she heads for the door, with the album under her arm. As she appears out the door, the album is gone.
Other mistake: Early in the film, Valerie Barksdale (Hilary Swank) visits Annie Wilson (Cate Blanchett) for a psychic reading. Valerie has been severely beaten by her husband, and her badly black and blue eye is swollen shut. A day or two later she visits Annie again. Amazingly her eye appears to have completely healed, even though the other marks on her face are still visible.
Continuity mistake: During Donnie's murder trial, the defense lawyer talks about the death of Annie's husband. He says her husband was killed in an explosion at work in April. However, at the end of the movie, Annie and the kids visit the husband's grave and it lists his date of death as November.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Annie and her children are getting in the car after church, she is wearing a dress but no sweater. When her friend comes over to tell her about Jessica's disappearance Annie is wearing a sweater over top of the dress. When she is turning to get in the car she is holding the sweater in her hand. Once she is in the car she is wearing the sweater again.
Continuity mistake: In the climax of the film Greg Kinnear whacks Cate Blanchett around the head with a torch and later in the police station we can see the wound above her left eyebrow. But in the next scene, set just a few hours later, it has vanished.
Continuity mistake: When Annie gets hit with the flashlight near the end, blood drips down very close to the crease of her eye. then after her friend saves her in the next scene the blood is farther away.
Continuity mistake: When Kate Blanchet read the cards to Hillary Swank for the second time, in one scene you can see that the card deck on Blanchet's hands have a "Waves card" at the bottom. In the next scene a "Star card" is at the bottom instead.
Continuity mistake: Keep an eye on the main character's watch. She always takes it off and lays it on the table when doing a "reading" for someone. Towards the end of movie, the watch disappears, then re-appearing during the reading.
Continuity mistake: At the club when Katie Holmes is sitting with her fiancé, she is wearing a black strappy dress with a strap hanging off her shoulders. She stands up to go and dance with her father and in the next frame the strap is in place on her shoulder.
Continuity mistake: At one point in the courtroom scene, the lawyer puts a dollar bill on the stand, then it cuts away and it's gone. A few seconds later and its back again.
Continuity mistake: At one point, the woman goes into her son's room and picks a book up. Then it cuts to a different angle as she walks out and she doesn't have it any more.
Other mistake: When Buddy has his father tied up in the backyard, he has a strap in his hand and starts to whip Annie with it when she goes near him. He tells her to get away, that's what we hear, but when he is lashing out at her his mouth is open and he doesn't mouth anything.
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the film Cate Blanchet's hair is swept to the right with a barette. The camera focuses on something else, and when it comes back to her her hair and barrette are on the left side of her head.
Continuity mistake: In the beginning, Valerie's eye is so badly bruised the eye is closed shut, but a few days later there is not a mark remaining.
Continuity mistake: At the trial, the defence lawyer puts a dollar bill on the witness box while he is questioning Annie, which keeps moving, without anyone's help.
Revealing mistake: When Jessica's dead body is seen by Annie in her bath and then in the hall, the make-up that is keeping Jessica's eye shut is coming away around the edges.
Audio problem: Buddy drives a manual truck, but when he goes around a corner, we can hear the truck's gears changing. Buddy's arm stays glued out the window, so he can't be changing gears.
Answer: The TV in Annie's room.
The TV wasn't on before, and Annie is suspicious of the noise and light, which she wouldn't be if it was just the TV.