I’m not one of those nuts who scrutinize films for bloopers and continuity mistakes. But when something is glaringly wrong on screen, I am wrenched from the cinematic magic and I find myself wondering about the director, producers, writers…hundreds of people on set who could have missed such a flagrant mistake!!
For instance, I just saw a new film starring Robin Williams called “World’s Greatest Dad”. This is a very, very dark comedy which I liked very much. Williams plays a high school poetry teacher. Twice in the film there were mistakes on screen that made me cringe. Remember …this film is set in a school where we would hope the teaching faculty has a modicum of grammatical prowess!
In one classroom scene, written on the wall behind the teacher is a motto: “Hard work is it’s (sic) own reward”.
In another even worse example…..posted on the hallway wall was a sign. “MacDonald student’s (sic) are respectful, accountable et cetera”. Did no one on set those days spot the errant apostrophes? Maybe the crew should all read Eats, shoots and leaves and learn the difference between “it is” and “its”….and what a plural is.
In the excellent science fiction film “District 9” another on-screen typo distracted me. Some of this movie is shot as a documentary, complete with names identifying the characters. One such character was identified as a “Liason” (sic). Again, I just can’t believe that the director, producers, editors…everyone who saw a rough cut of this film missed this mistake.
And finally…a gripe that has nothing to do with spelling or grammar. In the scrumptious “Julie and Julia”…Julia Child befriends two women in Paris with whom she collaborates to write her cookbook. Their names are Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle. You would think that Sony pictures could have stretched their budget to hire a couple of real French actresses. Instead we have Linda Emond (born in
