Ryan Gosling prepared for his role by living in Charleston, South Carolina before filming began. For two months, he rowed the Ashley River every morning and built furniture during the day.

To improve the relationship between the leads, director Nick Cassavetes staged an intervention by bringing them into a room where they could air all the grievances they had with each other and work something out. They soon patched up their differences, enough to become a real-life couple for some time.

According to Nick Cassavetes, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams did not get along at first and Gosling tried to have McAdams replaced.

Rachel McAdams spent time in Charleston before filming to familiarize herself with the surroundings. She also took ballet and etiquette classes and had a dialect coach to learn the southern accent.

Ryan Gosling built the kitchen table featured in the movie, in preparation for his role as Noah.

Continuity

When Noah and Allie are sitting on his front porch talking, Noah stands up angrily and throws the chair he was sitting in down, with the flowers falling on the ground. In the next shot, the chair is back up and the flowers are on the arm of the chair.

When Noah and Allie are talking in front of Allie's house (the last time they met before she goes to NY), she's wearing a necklace in some shots and not wearing it in others.

When Allie and Noah were lying in the street, they were in the center. A moment later, without getting up, they were in the right- hand lane. Then, again without getting to their feet, in the next shot, they were back in the center of the street.

When Duke and Allie are eating lunch after he's read to her some, he is wearing his reading glasses. In the next shot he is wearing his bifocals.

When the older Allie and Duke are having the candlelit dinner for two, Allie is wearing a plaid shawl over her red jacket as she begins to sit down. In the next shot of her seated, the shawl is off, with no time for her to have removed it. In the next shot, it's back on again.



Factual errors

The narrator says, "And after two years of chasing Erwin Rommel through the North African desert..." American forces fought in North Africa from November 1942 to May 1943 - just 6 months.

Li'l Abner (1940) was not in theaters during the summer of 1940. RKO did not release the picture until 1 November of that year.



Incorrectly regarded as goofs

Noah says the ducks are supposed to migrate to Wadmalaw Sound. The ducks in the film are of a domesticated breed and wouldn't migrate. But Wadmalaw Sound is located about 10 miles from Seabrook Island. Noah is probably wondering why the ducks were still in the swamp instead of the nearby larger body of water.

Allie in her youth has a black mole on her left cheek, but the older Allie doesn't have it. Moles can fall off or be removed.



Revealing mistakes

When Noah goes to mail his final letter to Allie, we can see sunlight shining through the envelope right before he puts it in the mailbox and there is obviously no letter in it.

In many of the scenes that take place in June and July, the grass is brown. It should be green during the summer in South Carolina.

During the first love scene at the plantation house, when Noah begins to get up, in a quick shot, it can be seen that he is wearing boxers.

In June-July 1940, cold breath is visible and grass is brown rather than green, indicating filming was done in winter.

When Duke is called in to see the doctor (after he had been reading to her again) he sits at the doc's desk. In the background a couple of chest X-rays are up on the view box - backwards.



Anachronisms

Some of the carnival rides were not available in the 1940s.

The movie Noah, Allie and their friends watch is in wide-screen format. Movies in the 1940s used the Academy format and wide-screen was not introduced until the 1950s.

Noah and Allie listen to Billie Holiday's 1944 rendition of "I'll Be Seeing You" in 1940.

When Allie is driving to see Noah, there is a plastic lace wrapped steering wheel cover visible. These did not exist in the 1940s.

When Allie and Noah walking after the movie, parking meters are clearly visible. Parking meters in South Carolina were introduced in 1947.



Audio/visual unsynchronized

When Noah jumps into the Ferris wheel seat that Allie and a boy are sitting in, we hear Allie's voice yell, "Get off me!", but Allie's lips do not move to say the words. While the words are said, Allie's mouth is simply open, as she is gasping.

When the band is playing on Noah's front porch and his father is playing the spoons with the band, as his father gets up to dance with Allie, he lays them down, but the sound of the spoons playing can still be heard in the music.

When Noah and Martha are leaving the house after dinner, Martha says "thanks for dinner" and Allie replies and is clearly seen washing dishes through the window, but her mouth is not moving.

When Allie visits Noah's house for the first time, he is reading poetry to his father. There is an evident mismatch between the sound and his lip movement.

When Noah and Allie in the Windsor Plantation, after Noah explains about the significance of the stairs, we can hear Allie say, "This place is gigantic," but her mouth doesn't move until a few seconds after it was said.



Crew or equipment visible

When Allie and her mum are outside Noah's newly restored house, crew and equipment are reflected in the side mirror of her car.

When Noah is hanging on the Ferris wheel, the microphone clipped to his shirt in middle of his back can be seen.

After Allie's mother gives her the letters and she and Noah are arguing on the porch, Noah's shirt can be seen to be caught on the wire from the mic pack against his lower back.



Errors in geography

The beach scenes are shot on a rocky beach, however South Carolina does not have a rocky coast.



Plot holes

The author of the notebook could not have known the details of the other party's life during their seven years apart. But perhaps the notebook was written after they had gotten back together and traded stories.



Character error

When Noah and Allie are in the middle of the road, Noah states that he and his dad used to watch the light change "from green to red to yellow" when street lights go from green to yellow to red.

South Carolina accents come and go, especially for Allie and Anne.