Goofs for
Where the Heart Is (2000) More at IMDbPro »

• Errors in geography: When Lexie is picking up Novalee on her return from Santa Fe in front of the Stop-N-Shop grocery store, the sign at the top of the store says, "Soda - Wine - Beer - Cigarettes". In Oklahoma, wine can only sold in liquor stores. It can't be sold in grocery stores.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: The crew is reflected in the red balloon by the hospital bed.
  
  
• Continuity: When Willy Jack Pickens first meets Ruth Meyers, the capo on his guitar moves from the second fret to the third, then back to the second.
  
  

• Continuity: When Novalee was in the hospital after Americus was born, Lexie referred to the day as being Tuesday. However, Americus was born 5 July 1995, which fell on a Wednesday.
  
  
• Factual errors: Novalee spends her nights alone in Wal-Mart. This, however, is the time when Wal-Mart stores are being re-stocked by a large number of workers.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Novalee is running out of Wal-Mart after purchasing her shoes there is a Queen Amidala poster hanging from the ceiling near the doors.
  
  
• Continuity: Lexie's car disappears when Ray's car pulls into the abandoned lot. But it reappears moments later when we see Ray approaching Novalee and Lexie.
  
  
• Continuity: When Novalee runs out of the Walmart, one of the vehicles in the car park disappears between shots.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: It's obvious by the long lists of husbands on the Bible's "Births" and "Deaths" pages - with dates of death spanning many years - that it is a family Bible belonging to the husbands. Though an attempt was made to make it look as though the names on the bible's "Births" and "Deaths" pages were entered at different times by using different pens, all the names are written in the same handwriting - Novalee's, as we see her writing Sister's name.
  
  
• Continuity: When Novalee goes into the ladies' room at the library, when she realizes she's not pregnant, her hairstyle changes from a flip when she enters to a straight style when she leaves the bathroom.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Novalee visits Willie Jack at the hospital, you can see a shadow of his foot under the bed.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The clerk in Wal-mart tells Novalee her change is $5.55, but the cash register clearly shows "$10.00 - 5.55", so $5.55 was the amount of the purchase not the change.
  
  
• Errors in geography: In opening scene of this movie it shows them at a trailer in Tellico Plains, TN which is located in Monroe County. Beside the trailer there is a train going by. There is no train track that runs through Tellico Plains, TN. In Monroe County only Sweetwater, Madisonville, and Vonore have train tracks running through their towns.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: A member of the crews' reflection appears briefly in the mirror when Novalee is shaving her legs in the bathroom at Walmart. It clearly was not Novalee's reflection; as it was the wrong angle.
  
  
• Continuity: When Novalee and Lexie are outside folding laundry, and the exterminator guy drives by, Lexie does the final two folds of the sheet twice.
  
  
• Continuity: When Novalee visits Forney in his hotel room, when she opens the door, we see that the roses are next to Forney. When it cuts back to him, they are on the opposite side of the bed.
  
  
• Factual errors: When you are pregnant, you cannot feel the baby's heartbeat through your stomach. A baby's heartbeat is much faster then an adult's. Babies float in amniotic fluid in a protective sac. If Novalee felt anything it was probably movement from the baby or her blood moving through her body.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Novalee is adding what she owes Walmart in her notebook, most of the totals of what she owes are not added correctly.
  
  
• Continuity: When Novalee's mother visits her in the hospital, she is smoking a cigarette. She throws the cigarette on the ground and steps on it to put it out. The camera flashes to Novalee and then back to her mother who has the cigarette back in her hand, half smoked.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Novalee is outside before Sister comes to pick her up, the baby she is holding is obviously a doll. When Sister grabs the baby's hand, the hand springs back, unlike a human baby.
  
  
• Plot holes: It is only a month or two after Americus is born that Novalee decides to take Sister's truck to a mechanic. That same day, the couple from Midnight, Mississippi come to see Americus and Sister sends them away. Around Christmas time, Americus is kidnapped by the Mississippi couple and left at the Church. We know Americus is five months old. Five months could not have been the only time that elapsed, because in between the two events, Novalee dated the mechanic and thought she was pregnant and Lexie met a guy dated him and wound up getting pregnant and shows up to buy a Christmas tree at least 7 months pregnant.
  
  

Related Links