Goofs

Leopold chases Stuart out of his home and to the bridge in the pouring rain. When Kate comes back to that time, the streets are dry, with no rain, just some thunder and lightning in the sky behind the bridge.

At the beginning of the film, when Stuart and Kate are talking on the phone, the clock behind them jumps back five minutes.

Kate's hairstyle changes repeatedly during the business dinner event at the modern Madison Ave house, and less obviously (but still noticeably) back in time at the same location.

During the rooftop dinner, the strap of Kate's dress alternates between on her shoulder and off her shoulder between shots.

When Charlie and Leopold talk on the sidewalk before going to the restaurant where Kate and J.J. are waiting, Charlie holds a cell phone. It disappears in the next shot, then reappears in the last shot before he runs into the restaurant.

Leopold is shown carving a feather into a quill pen, and using the diluted ink from a modern ball point pen to write a letter. Feathers must be cured or tempered before being cut into pens, a lengthy process usually involving heat and sand, and the ink in modern ballpoint pens is very thick and oil-based--too thick to be used with a quill, while the oil would prevent it being diluted with water, as shown.

In Kate's place of work, her co-worker Darci is at her desk crying as she reads a book titled "Dark Challenge" by Christine Feehan. When Kate asks Darci about the book's ending, Darci states while sniffling the character has gangrene, loses his leg, and ends up shipwrecked on an island with his lover. Dark Challenge is a real book; however, that is nowhere near the plot of the actual story. The actual book is about vampires.

In the final act, Darci walks up to an elevator, goes to push the button and misses it by about six inches. The elevator arrives anyway however somebody else could have pushed the button and it not being seen on camera; that is what elevators do they come and go.

Leopold's French is wrongly translated: he did not say 'your face looks sweet'; In French, he said 'soft'. (The same French word 'doux' means both in English, however this is what it means in the context.) Also, not only was Hugh Jackman's pronunciation quite flawed (not just strongly accented) but there are words missing to what he translated in what he pronounced.

The letter that Leopold pens with ink and quill, when read by Kate, is obviously a prop document created with a computer typeface instead of being handwritten, with consistently identical letter forms. Ironically, the response letter that Darcy writes for Kate to sign is handwritten.

When Charlie follows Kate to secretly give her the apology letter from Leopold, Kate tries to open her briefcase a little so Charlie can slip the letter in.

It can easily be seen that the same person who wrote Leopold's letter, also wrote Kate's fax reply and signed both.

When Kate goes to the business meeting at the Madison Avenue property, there are photos on the lectern. Yet Simon is shown at the back of the room - so how did the photos get there?

Among the people he admires, Leopold mentions "Edison with his lamp", Diesel, Bell, and Westinghouse. In 1876, when the movie takes place, Thomas A. Edison had just gotten his first interest in incandescent lamps, Rudolph Diesel was 18, and Alexander Graham Bell's telephone had just been patented. Although the Westinghouse Electric Company wasn't founded until 1886, George Westinghouse received his first patent in 1873.

When Leopold wakes up in Stuart's apartment, he tells Stuart "For all I know, you could be Jack the Ripper!" Leopold is from 1876, but the Jack the Ripper murders occurred in London in 1888.

Leopold is from 1876, yet he is familiar with Giacomo Puccini's "La Boheme" (first performed in 1896) and Tosca (1900), and Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance" (1879). In the Italian (dubbed) version, Leopold mentions Verdi's "La Traviata", first performed in 1853.

When Stuart takes pictures "in the past," a 50-star US flag is in the background. A 37-star U.S. flag which is the correct number of stars from 1867 to 1877 (8 stars on top, 3 rows of 7 stars, 8 stars on bottom). In one scene, behind Leopold's head, a spectator in the crowd waves the correct flag.

Leopold listens to a speech by John Roebling in April 1876. John A. Roebling died in 1869, a few weeks after construction of the Brooklyn Bridge began. It could be Roebling's son, Washington, but he was born and educated in the United States, and would not to speak with a German accent. Also, he also didn't visit the construction site between 1872 and 1883.

Leopold went running after Stuart with the clothes on his back; there is no way he would have so many period outfits to change into, such as the long purple velvet coat he wears when he goes to the audition.

Once Leopold goes back to 1876 near the end of the film Stuart explains to him that he will go back to April 28th 1876 and things may remain the same but Leopold can't follow Stuart in the existing time-line. However there should have been two Leopolds in the same scene. One following Stuart into the future again and the other to remain in 1876.

When Leopold is telling Hector about the Pirate King, he gets the plot of The Pirates of Penzance wrong. The Pirate King didn't fall in love with one of the Major General's daughters; rather, Frederick, the apprentice pirate, fell in love with her.

When in 1876, Leopold is addressed either as "Your Highness" or "Your Grace". However, the former is only used to address Dukes who are also members of the Royal family, in which case the latter is never used (and would be considered offensive). If Leopold is not a member of the Royal family, then he should only be addressed as "Your Grace" and using the style "Your Highness" would be incorrect and offensive to the Royal family. However, his dance partner, who is American, would not realize the offense and uses Your Highness. This explains the forced smile from Leopold and the stoic expression from Otis. Leopold's surname is "Mountbatten", suggesting that he is of the House of Mountbatten (formerly the House of Battenberg until World War I), which was a morganatic branch of royalty that was not capable of inheriting titles such as a dukedom.

Leopold gives Charlie a piece of paper saying the number on it will "ring" Patrice. While it's proper for a British person to use the word "ring" in relation to a phone call, Leopold would never have heard the term used that way, given the time he came from and because he would have only been around modern Americans who would use the word "call".

The romance revolves around what a gentleman Leopold is, and how he complies with the mores of his time, however he has no qualms about courting Kate while she's unchaperoned. Not only he thus dances with her on the rooftop, and kisses her, furthermore there is no way a gentleman from his time would have agreed to lie down in bed spooning with her without first being married. Although it made for great scenes for a modern romance movie, some monologue should have been added to allow Leopold to give himself some kind of gentlemanly dispensation to break his own rules.

When Leopold is on the phone with the man in the hospital and he cannot hear him, he repeatedly says 'hello'; there is no way a man from 1876 would have known to say hello when not being able to hear someone at the other end of the line.