Insurance manager Alan Arkin is annoyed by a cheerful subordinate and fires him when ordered to cut costs. Attorney Matthew McConaughey lands a case against a mugger who's killed a victim, but runs over a girl (Clea DuVall) and drives off without helping. Maths prof John Turturro is so wrapped up in his own problems, he ignores a suicidal student.
All these stories eventually shuffle together and the dialogue is mostly about whether it's possible to be happy in such a randomly nasty world. Writer-director Jill Sprecher doesn't have the deftness or sad humour that P. T. Anderson uses in his similarly contrived group portraits, but the cast are, at least, individually fine.