* ActingForTwo:
** Creator/KennethBranagh plays both Mike Church and Roman Strauss, while Creator/EmmaThompson plays both Grace and Margaret Strauss.
** In addition, Creator/JoAnderson plays the nun who's pleading Grace's case in the present day, and a starlet who dismisses Roman in the past sequence, while composer Patrick Doyle plays a cop in the present day, and a party-goer in the past sequence.
* AwesomeDearBoy: Both Creator/AndyGarcia and Creator/RobinWilliams were big fans of Branagh's film version of ''Theatre/HenryV'', and jumped at the chance to work with him.
* ClassicFillerText: Several newspaper pages establish that Roman Strauss is a celebrity. In each page, the first two or three paragraphs are on topic, but the rest are filler, making heavy use of the classic "common recognition" and "public hearing" paragraphs that have been used in many other movies.
* FakeNationality:
** Branagh and Thompson are {{Fake American}}s.
** Branagh is also playing the Austrian Roman Strauss.
* HeyItsThatPlace:
** Roman's mansion, which later becomes the orphanage Grace turns up at, is none other than [[Series/Batman1966 stately Wayne manor]].
** The distinctive apartment building where Grace turns out to live was also seen as Literature/PhilipMarlowe's home in the 1973 film version of ''Film/TheLongGoodbye''.
* PlayingAgainstType: Creator/RobinWilliams, who up to that point had played either comic roles or characters who were essentially good, plays a creepy ex-psychiatrist.
* RealLifeRelative: Branagh and Thompson were married at the time this film was released.
* ThrowItIn:
** As was his wont, Creator/RobinWilliams improvised much of Carlisle's first meeting with Mike Church.
** According to Creator/KennethBranagh's DVD commentary, Creator/DerekJacobi improvised the stuff that Madsen touches when he's leaving Church's apartment.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Creator/DonaldSutherland was the first choice for Franklin Madsen. Other actors considered were Creator/AlecBaldwin, Creator/GabrielByrne, Creator/JohnLithgow, Creator/ChristopherLloyd, and Creator/AlanRickman.
** The decision to double Mike & Roman and Grace & Margaret was made by Branagh when he took on the project; the screenwriter had envisaged them being played by four different actors.
** The film was shot entirely in color, but when test audiences were confused about which scenes were in the present or a flashback, the flashbacks were made black and white.
** Grace was originally not mute for the first half hour, but since all her lines in that period were little more than endless repetitions of “I don’t remember,” it was decided she might as well just not talk at all until she had something meaningful to say.
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