Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the movie, Sir Anthony Hopkins' character gets to his sports car and drives off to commit murder. The shadows on the tarmac outside the hangar change in the span of a few seconds. (00:03:50)
Continuity mistake: When "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" are on the terrace and he asks her to dinner, the lighting of the scene changes dramatically between shots, to the point that you can also see the outline of Embeth Davidtz's fingers behind Billy Burke's neck through the robe in the frontal view, mismatched with the back view, robe collar in full shade and no hand anywhere near. (00:04:35)
Continuity mistake: When Ted Crawford asks for Lt. Rob Nunally on the phone, the conversation is played in continuity, but there's a car in the zoomed-up view that disappears in the view behind Hopkins' shoulder. (00:05:35)
Continuity mistake: When Ted Crawford enters the bedroom where his wife cheated on him, he stares at the bed, which is differently lit between shots - in the first angle, it's sunlit; in the side view, it is fully in the shade. (00:06:40)
Revealing mistake: As Jennifer Crawford drives past the gate of her residence (a private home, the real-life Sherman Residence, which then became the real house of Alyson Hannigan), she drives past a sign that says "Lobby Parking Lot Full." (00:07:45)
Continuity mistake: The stains on Mrs. Crawford's top change position between the time when she falls on the floor, seemingly dead, and the time when Nunally and the paramedic rescue her. There's a conspicuous stripe of blood drip when she falls, while she shows just dot-shaped stains in the later scene. (00:10:45 - 00:16:10)
Continuity mistake: During Lt. Nunally's rather clumsy attempt to talk Ted into giving him the gun, when the camera is behind Ted, his head is tilted in the opposite direction of Sir Hopkins' in close-ups. (00:14:20)
Continuity mistake: When Ryan Gosling massages his foot while turning down a bargain plea, his wristwatch shows it's 4:40. A couple of scenes later in the day, he is called into court for a 3 PM arraignment; he complains about having just 15 minutes to get there, and his wristwatch now shows it's a little after half past noon when he cleans the spilled coffee, and then a couple of minutes before noon when he rubs his eyes. (00:19:30 - 00:23:10)
Continuity mistake: In the first courtroom scene, Crawford fires his attorney. Throughout the scene (starting with the wide shot, but also in the transition between closer angles), Sir Anthony Hopkins' hands change position instantaneously between shots. (00:24:25)
Continuity mistake: When the judge asks Willy Beachum if he has an objection to Crawford's request to represent himself, Willy's arms go from straight to bent between shots. (00:25:00)
Revealing mistake: In one of the most memorable moments of the movie, Hopkins' character trolls Gosling's, gesturing him to fix his bowtie (and will get his comeuppance at the end). When Gosling does that, the arms of his wristwatch show it's around 1 PM, while the court proceeding is supposedly taking place at 3 PM. (00:25:20)
Deliberate mistake: When Willy's fellow prosecutor, Norman, dropped the Crawford preliminary hearing on him, they said it started at 15:00. Willy is in a rush and the whole ordeal takes him just a few minutes. Still, when Nunally accosts him in the parking lot, the movie sped things up; it's nighttime. (00:27:00)
Continuity mistake: At the party, Nikki Gardner is walking and talking with Willy, asking him about what happened with a fellow associate of the law firm. Willy listens with exaggerated expressions, palm on his mouth; his fingers rest at opposite sides of his nose between shots. Similar blunder a moment later, when she starts saying that Burt never interviews juniors; his hand should be on his left cheek, but in the reverse shot it's not there; he touches it only a second later. (00:29:45)
Continuity mistake: When Willy is on the phone talking furniture and asks the difference between Italian and English, Flores is reaching inside the inner pocket of his jacket as he walks towards the camera. At the cut, his hand is on the notepad, and only then does he proceed again to reach inside the jacket, this time finally pulling out a pen. (00:33:05)
Continuity mistake: When Willy asks the decorator on the phone what's the difference between Italian and English, his Samsung Blade switches hands, switching back when he holds it against his chest. (00:33:05)
Other mistake: In the case file folder that Crawford sent back to Willy, you can spot the hour of the arrest being marked down as 21:15. Considering the murder happened around 5 PM, according to the depositions, that's just wrong. (00:37:20)
Continuity mistake: Willy complains about the unmarked folder that Danny, the clerk, brought him. He looks at the folder, holding it with one hand, instantly turning it into both hands at the cut. (00:37:20)
Continuity mistake: From the moment Beachum puts down on the table between them the disclosure folder that Crawford mailed him back, it faces different directions without anyone touching it. (00:38:30)
Continuity mistake: Before the first day of the proper trial, with Ciro's deposition, there's a montage showing Willy Beachum getting ready. However, in that montage, he suits up wearing the red tie that he was wearing in its introductory scene at the beginning of the movie and that he ruined with the coffee spill. The scene was supposed to be edited earlier in the movie, probably. At the trial, Beachum sports a black tie. (00:43:45)
Plot hole: According to the deposition of the policeman, the police were on the premises at exactly 5:12 PM. Considering that Lt. Nunally started his shift only at 6 PM (as per Crawford's phone call, even if by any logic it was the kind of fact a meticulous planner like him, with seemingly unlimited access to intelligence, would have to know already), Crawford concocted his master plan that hinged on Nunally being called up for the situation at a time when he was, in fact, not on duty. (00:45:00)
