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Stupidity: The protagonist knocks at every door, humiliates himself, losing any hope of getting his dream job, jumps through all sorts of hoops to get a court order to save Crawford's wife, but somehow, once he gets it, he has to drive through LA and physically get to the hospital room where euthanasia will be performed, because he couldn't be bothered to phone the hospital to tell them about the court order or talk to someone in the lobby.

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Trivia: The prop department had some fun during the making of the movie; you can see a lot of names of miscellaneous crew slipped in a few spots. There are boxes with case files scattered around the district attorney's offices; the ones behind Willy in his own office (People vs. Bonaventura - Tony Bonaventura being the property master, People vs. Morgenthau - Kramer Morgenthau being the director of photography) get quite a bit of screen time, but there are several others all over the office space, all carrying the name of a crew member. For instance, in a brief sequence when a dejected Willy walks up to Mona's desk to ask for her help before the third act, you can see unique ones. There's also a listing board with judges during the arraignment, and one with doctors when Willy is stopped by the hospital security; both of them are filled with names of production crew members. (01:16:50 - 01:33:20)

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Other mistake: In the end credits, the opera song is listed as "Ombra fedel anch'io." It's "fedele" with a closing E. While the apocope (elision) of the last vowel is perfectly acceptable in Italian, especially archaic literary Italian, the song (from "Idaspe," by famous castrato Farinelli's brother) is always listed with the final "e." (01:52:15)

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Continuity mistake: In the glimpse of the last trial, the bailiff says, "All rise," as Judge Pincus walks in, and people behind the prosecution bench take the instruction all too zealously as they do it twice - in different ways. Check out the guy with a jacket on his arm next to the woman in red - in separate shots. (01:48:20)

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Continuity mistake: When Crawford sees Willy out after telling him to get the eff out, Hopkins turns towards the door, fully lit. He then peeks out of the door, now showing a more dramatic shadow on it. (01:47:50)

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Plot hole: The villain's plan can work and fool the judiciary system because of extraordinary coincidences out of his control. He needs to steal the gun of his wife's lover in broad daylight without employing any modicum of stealth; he needs said lover to be the particular negotiator assigned to that case. He then needs the two agents standing by the door to be unable to hear any part of the confession he spews out, and to be absolutely sure that the detective has no recording device or radio contact throughout the ordeal. Not just that, but the spry septuagenarian also switches guns with cat-like ability - Nunally left his gun by the open door, where the other two agents are waiting. So the other two policemen had to be deaf and blind for his plan to work. He does not even have any time to switch guns with Nunally from our perspective as viewers; for the tiny five seconds when he is off camera and out of Nunally's direct eyesight, he is taunting him while supposedly moving around the large entrance to grab the gun.

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Continuity mistake: In Willy's flashback when he speaks to Crawford for the denouement, his SPH-a900 flip phone and Flores' swap position compared to how the actual scene went. Just look at the position of the three buttons; the buttons of Beachum's faced him originally, they face Flores when he grabs it by mistake in the flashback. (01:37:55 - 01:41:55)

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Continuity mistake: When Willy rings Crawford's doorbell, notice a white control panel below the CCTV screen. Hopkins then answers the door in a different shot, with the panel missing. The panel was always there during his earlier scene with Nunally, and it is still there for the rest of the scene, missing again only in a later zoom-in on the monitor as Crawford checks on the prosecutor. Probably those were later reshoots. (01:39:25)

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Other mistake: When Beachum grabs the Nunally case file next to multitasking Flores, the date on the folder is November 5th, which is patently absurd considering the murder took place on the 10th, and the suicide the Monday after Thanksgiving. (01:37:35)

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Other mistake: One of the shots during the montage of Beachum driving to the hospital to try and stop the euthanasia is flipped; the writing on the desk is mirrored. It comes after Willy leaves Judge Gardner's yard and a close-up on Embeth Davidtz's face. (01:32:10)

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Revealing mistake: Out of ideas, Willy rummages through Jennifer Crawford's belongings and finds an old copy of Dr. Seuss' "Oh, the Places You'll Go." It's a teal hardcover book with the front recognizable because of the cover picture. Later on, a sleepy Willy is surprised by the doctor as he reads the book to Jennifer. He closes it, and it has the splint on his right side, no cover picture. You don't get a good view of the other half of the book, but if he was reading it, he was then doing it while holding it upside down. (01:03:55 - 01:04:50)

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Continuity mistake: Crawford taunts Beachum, waking him up by his comatose wife's hospital bed. Beachum slides his left hand under the jacket he had draped over himself, but in the next shot, his hand is raised. (01:27:05)

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Continuity mistake: Beachum and Flores are looking at the security camera footage from Nov 10. Willy enhances the picture (the mouse pointer gets gigantic along with the picture, funnily enough), but when it cuts to a different angle, the image is zoomed out again, only to be zoomed in again a few seconds later when Willy angrily throws his bag across the room. Nobody touched the PowerBook during any of that. (01:13:45)

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Other mistake: Willy just rebuffed Nunally's offer of fabricating evidence. He listens to Nikki Gardner's phone call; he doesn't pick it up, it gets to his answering machine. After that, the answering machine tells him he has one unheard message (the 4:10 one from the hotel concierge), but it should be two: the hotel's and Nikki's. (01:13:20)

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Revealing mistake: Willy is poolside at Crawford's when Detective Flores tells him the negative outcome of the umpteenth search for the gun. Gosling is waiting for the news with his hands crossed behind his neck, his big wristwatch on display, showing that the filming happened around 11am, and it is colour filtered to make it look like it happened later in the day. (01:02:50)

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Continuity mistake: Lobruto asks Beachum, "You want it back?" after telling him the high stakes of staying committed to the case. Gosling nods, hand over his mouth in close-up. In the wider angle of the room, his hand is on his knee. (00:57:45)

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Continuity mistake: When Willy opens the box with the eggshells Crawford sent him to taunt him, the cardboard flaps have been properly spread out for the close-up instead of being partially up like they were before. In the same close-up, he also pulls out a broken bit that loses the straw that was covering it, but in the next shot featuring Ryan Gosling's face, a straw wrapped on top of the broken eggshell falls off it anyway. (00:56:10)

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Continuity mistake: When Willy says "I don't know" to the judge's question about Nunally being present at the interrogation, Ryan Gosling changes position all of a sudden, from tucking his chin between thumb and fingers to having his knuckles against the side of his mouth. (00:49:45)

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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)

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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)

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