Many loosely connected characters cross paths in this film, based on the stories of Raymond Carver. Waitress Doreen Piggot accidentally runs into a boy with her car. Soon after walking away, the child lapses into a coma. While at the hospital, the boy's grandfather tells his son, Howard, about his past affairs. Meanwhile, a baker starts harassing the family when they fail to pick up the boy's birt
Iñárritu watched Robert Altman's 'Short Cuts' and films by Akira Kurosawa and Kenji Mizoguchi during his filmmaking education as he figured out how to make his own features.