Pretty Woman might still be one of the best known movies ever made. The iconic love story between a handsome, wealthy, businessman named Edward Lewis and an escort named Vivian Ward is a new take on the classic prince and the pauper, but even though the movie itself is fairly perfect, it has a small mistake that has gone unnoticed by most right around the 32 minute mark. A minute swap between croissants and pancakes that almost no one has ever seen.
This movie is epic because of many reasons, the first likely being its star studded cast, starting with protagonists Richard Gere and Julia Robers, at the time at the top of their game and exhibiting a chemistry that made us all believe that love could transcend social class and financial status. Of course, we all know it is not true, and few of us would like to be on fictional Vivian’s shoes, but it is nice to dream of finding someone that we can just be ourselves with no matter what.
The charm of the movie lies in that it does not shy away from controversial topics and misunderstandings that are bound to happen between people from such different backgrounds. The famous shopping scene has become iconic and teaches us all a lesson about appearances, but at the end of the day, Pretty Woman is still just a movie and showing up in unsuitable clothes in a high end store will yield the same result to you as it did for Vivian.
Something else that is important to note is that Pretty Woman is a product of the time it was made in. Nowadays we are all a lot more educated on the pitfalls of prostitution and trivializing sex work. Again, we would not like to be Vivian, but in the movie her life was glamorized and the fact that our charming businessman hired her is glossed over in order to create the beautiful illusion of safety and charm.
Despite all the criticisms, it is still one of the great movies that is reference because of its cinematography and scenes, witty dialogue and costume design, but even in a movie with such high production value a mistake is bound to happen, and, although in this case it is not such a big mistake that it ruins the scene, it is one that can give critics and fans alike the pleasure of discovering a hidden gem.
The very subtle mistake that can be found in Pretty Woman
Since movies are made by a lot of humans, and humans make a lot of mistakes, Pretty Woman is not an exception. For those who know the movie well, the mistake can be found on the 32 minute mark on the breakfast scene.
During the breakfast scene at the hotel between Edward and Vivian, a minor continuity slip went unnoticed in production. Julia Roberts’ character initially grabs a croissant, but moments later, it inexplicably becomes a pancake. Director Garry Marshall later explained that the change was a result of choosing a take where Roberts’ performance stood out, despite the mismatched props and as a result, the team kept the sequence even though the breakfast item visibly switches mid-scene.
Adding to the inconsistency, in one shot the pancake has two bites, while in the next, only one appears to be missing. The bite mark also differs, and the pancake itself doesn’t match the one seen earlier.
Such a little mistake does not take away from the wonderfulness of the scene or the movie, but it is always fun to see how these “mistakes” are managed and the reasonings behind it, as they allow us a peak behind the curtain and allow us to see that glamour is nothing but a smokescreen.