Headscratchers / Drop Dead Fred

• How the heck did Mickey recognise Lizzie on sight after not seeing her in nearly 20 years (since they were "little kids" in his words)?
  • Lizzie has a pretty distinct look with her dark eyes and long hair; it probably helps that she also still looks and dresses a little childishly at the start of the movie. We also don't know what Mickey means by 'little kids'.
• Nigel is set up to be the good parent as opposed to Elizabeth's controlling mother...and he simply walks out of her life? No mention of a custody battle (one that seem to be in his favour) and he walks out after Lizzie's mother tells him that he knows nothing about child-rearing, and he basically proves her right.
  • Just because there was no mention of a custody battle doesn't mean that one never happened. Nigel would have had a lot working against him if he wanted sole custody of Lizzie. Back then it was a lot harder for fathers to have exclusive rights to their children, plus he had a police record thanks to Fred and Polly is extremely manipulative.
• At the psychologist's office, Fred sees a bunch of other imaginary friends, which no one else can see, including Lizzie, who is bewildered by his strange behaviour (even considering that this is Fred we're talking about). Simply put, Fred can see them and they can see him because they're all imaginary friends. Lizzie only sees Fred because he's the only imaginary friend that she knows exists, while the rest of the patients stopped believing in them a long time ago and thus no longer see them (or alternatively are just flat-out ignoring them). It's kinda like imaginary friends are on a separate plane of existence from humans (which makes sense, since they're imaginary) that can only be seen by a few people in a few cases.
  • It could also be argued that the only imaginary friend you can see is your own. Which, if you've ever had an imaginary friend, you know is Truth in Television.
  • Or those are Fred's imaginary friends.
    • Fred's just reuniting with old "work colleagues". He has been out of the game for nearly 20 years at that point. You'd probably do the same thing if you met old work-friends after a long separation.
• How did Fred switch places with the violinist Lizzie attacked?
  • Certainly gives more fuel to the whole schizo/hallucination theory...
  • This is the peak of Elizabeth's mental break caused by the series of events at the beginning and having to live with her mother again. You could also argue Mickey himself helped cause her break because he reminded her of her childhood coping mechanism - Fred. Instead of her date with Mickey going well, he appears to be mentally unstable himself (or at least suffering mentally because of his divorce). He sets her off worse than ever so Fred goes particularly out of control. Note Liz/Fred throws the dinner at the woman Mickey says he used to date. Who the hell points out an ex-girlfriend on a first date?! So after the Mickey ordeal, she tries to calm herself down but finds herself attacking a woman. A big theme of the film is Elizabeth never feeling like a good enough woman and being forced into certain gender roles. Therefore, she lashes out at various women in different ways.

---