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James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal in Secretary (2002)

Goofs

Secretary

Edit

Continuity

Lee was bent over his desk and Mr Grey instructed her to pull down her pantyhose and underwear. When he had finished masturbating, she pulled down her skirt but did not raise her pantyhose and underwear. She walked to the door unimpeded and when she was in the bathroom, her pantyhose and underwear were in the normal position.
Mr. Grey slams a letter on Lee's desk and he has circled the letter 'f' in the word 'knowledfe', which Lee has mistyped. When Mr. Grey brings Lee into his office and makes her bend over to read the mistyped letter she just placed on the desk, we see that the entire word is circled, not just the letter 'f,' as was seen before. Not only that, but the word circled in the letter Lee reads is "illuminatinh", rather than "knowledfe".
Lee carries a limp, sodden certificate into Mr Grey's building. The document that she offers to him in the office is dry.
When Lee is masturbating in the office toilet, she puts her left hand in her blouse, covering her breast. Moments later, still masturbating, Lee's blouse is closed.
When Lee is being dried off by Mr. Grey, there are fewer scars and cuts on her torso than in the next shot, when he lays her on the bed.

Factual errors

All the cars in the film have Florida license plates on the front of the car. Florida only has back plates.
At about 39 minutes, Mr. Grey releases a mouse caught in one of his traps into his yard. It is a white mouse. White mice (to be distinguished from albino ones) do not exist in the wild, and especially not in cities or suburbs; those are usually gray (coincidence?) or brown. White mice are specially bred to be experimented upon, or for food for other animals, such as pet snakes, and are thus controlled with respect to distribution, use, and even specific genetic characteristics.

Revealing mistakes

When Lee goes to Mr. Grey's office to apply for a job, rain falls only in the foreground. Closer observation shows that the background location is reasonably dry and not being rained on.
In the first scene, Lee takes an assumedly freshly-typed letter directly from the typewriter with her mouth. But as she's walking down the hall toward E. Edward Grey's office, a circled error can be seen on the letter.
When Mr. Grey is typing his apology letter to Lee, his finger goes to hit the spacebar, but misses and he just continues typing.

Miscellaneous

The Polaroid Photo that Mr. Grey takes of Lee Holloway is not the same one he burns. Assuming he only took one photo, in the first one Lee's eyes are looking away from the camera, and in the burned photo she is looking directly at the camera.
"Unintentional" in the disclaimer about similarity to actual persons or events near the end of the credits is misspelled as "unitentional".

Anachronisms

The letter that Lee masturbates to in the bathroom is dated July 27, 1999, yet earlier in the story she is seen reading the June 2001 issue of Cosmopolitan.

Audio/visual unsynchronised

The typewriter shown during the starting credits has a typeball, but it sounds like a manual or daisy wheel typewriter.

Crew or equipment visible

A member of crew is reflected in the car window when Lee first arrives at the office. Lighting gear and boom mic also visible in the car window as the door opens.
During the shot of Lee with the White Out bottles on the typewriter in the foreground, the reflection (inside the lens?) of the camera operator can be seen - an outline of a head with an arm turning the focus ring.

Errors in geography

Even though the movie is supposed to take place in Florida, many times large hills are seen in the background, the likes of which are not found in Florida, but are found around Los Angeles.
Depending on what you call a "mountain," Sugarloaf Mountain" is the fifth highest named point in the state of Florida, at 312 feet above sea level. It is also the highest point on the Florida Peninsula. The "mountain" is in Lake County, near the town of Clermont (Where the story is based). Sugarloaf Mountain is the most prominent point in the entire state. So, in order to honeymoon in the mountains by Florida standards, they would not have to drive more than 12 miles.
Peter washes clothes at Lucy's LaundryMart, a California chain with no locations in Florida.
While looking for possibly discarded notes in the dumpster, Lee moves a box from Church Brothers Produce, a California and Arizona company. This would probably be an unlikely item to find in a dumpster in Florida.
The misspelling of Clermont is also visible on the sign for Clairmont Community College, where Lee learns to type.

Boom mic visible

When Tricia O'Connor arrives and calls Lee submissive, a boom mic is clearly reflected in the window behind Lee, following her while she moves from left to right.

Character error

Lee is copying a one page document with the copier cover open. This might be okay if the page was positioned exactly right, but the page is in the middle of the glass instead of in a corner (which is usual) and after Grey tells her "good letter" she accidentally moves the page but continues copying. This would definitely result in askew copies with dark sections.
The 6/7/99 letter addressed to Mr. Ralbovsky has three typos circled, but Grey overlooked the incorrect grammar of the first sentence. There seems to be a word or phrase missing between "requiring" and "issued" at the beginning of the second line. As is, the sentence makes no sense. Also, there are two spaces between "Law" and the case number, and two line breaks instead of one between the paragraphs.

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James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal in Secretary (2002)
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