Fletcher's hand having a mind of its own in the blue pen scene is pretty far-fetched, even for a film about a child's wish coming true. But it makes more sense when you realize Fletcher pretends his hand has come to life while he plays with Max all the time. The magic is completely mental, so it's using things his mind is already used to.
When Fletcher gets Samantha to admit that she lied about her age so she could get married, he triumphantly shouts "AND THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE!" at the top of his lungs. When you think about this a minute, you realize that's actually a fairly accurate description of what follows: However legally dubious it might be in Real Life, in the context of the movie, the truth set Samantha free from her contract.
This Troper always thought Audrey's boyfriend bore some slight resemblance to Fletcher, even having some of the same facial expressions. At first I thought that was odd.... until I realized that might have been deliberate. Audrey got driven away from Fletcher.... only to start dating a guy who looks like him.
A lot of people do tend to do this in real life, and not just with people who resemble their exes.
I used to think that when Fletcher found out that his son wished he could be incapable of lying for 24 hours, they why couldn't Fletcher unwish it. The reason Fletcher couldn't do it himself because 1st: It was Max's wish and 2nd: it was a birthday wish.
When begging for a bathroom break in court, Fletcher cites potential damage to the prostate gland, and with it, inability to experience sexual arousal. The judge asks if that's true, Fletcher replies, "It has to be." Sure, it could be the magic at work, but think about it — he started his lecture with "I heard". So either all the medical jargon is true, or just the trivial fact that he heard it somewhere is true.
A somewhat sad one, but when Fletcher calls Audrey to let her know that he won't be able to keep his promise (again), and reveals his sexual encounter with Miranda the previous night, why doesn't he say that she held him up and forced him into sex with her in order to further his career as it IS the truth of the matter instead of simply taking the fall for the whole thing as he did? Notice that about this time is when he begins to say things that he believes and thinks about himself, about how much he wants to see Max and that he is a bad father, around this time, so him taking the fall is, according to him, the truth of the matter and accepting full responsibility for his failure to be there for his son, despite the fact that Miranda effectively forcing herself onto him is still him telling the truth. Somewhat sad as it shows just how low Fletcher ultimately thinks of himself and the things his job has cost him, so he blames himself no matter what the complete truth is.
Fletcher gets to reunite with Max at the end but he does so by ruining several dozen people's travel plans.
There's a very real chance that Max learned the wrong lesson from the events of the film and lied about using his second birthday wish to for a pair of rollerblades, instead secretly wishing for his parents to get back together after all.
There's really nothing stopping Greta from going to the authorities with her evidence of Fletcher's past corruption and fraudulent court cases. And considering the incredibly poor terms they parted on, she has every incentive to do so.
Except for the fact that she and Fletcher made up at the end.
Fletcher is able to say things he believes are lies, but are actually true (as seen in the scene where he convinces the judge to recess for a bathroom break by describing the health impacts of holding it in). Ergo, shouldn't he be able to tell the validity of any statement simply by attempting to speak it aloud?
No, he says "I've heard that", which makes it a statement of hearsay or something, instead of absolute truth.
Ultimately, this puts us in the grey area of whether he could tell a lie if he believed it was true, or at least didn't know of any reason why what he's talking about can't be true.
Judge Stephens actually asks him "Can't it wait?" and he does tell him. "Yes it CAN..." before proceeding with his "But I've heard" bit which is probably true...assuming it is something he has legit heard before, regardless of whether it's medically sound or not, so he DOES tell the truth either way.
