Henry Chinaski (Mickey Rourke) is a destitute alcoholic who lives in a rundown apartment and works menial jobs when he can find them. An intelligent man and keenly aware of his circumstance, he finds solace in expressing his feelings and perceptions of the world through writing poetry and short stories.
Kiranjit Ahluwalia (Aishwarya Rai), a Punjabi woman, marries Deepak Ahluwalia (Naveen Andrews) in an arranged marriage and moves to Southall, UK with him to be closer to his family. Initially he seems caring and affectionate towards her but soon enough the true colors of her husband begin to show as Deepak gradually reveals a darker, threatening, and even sociopathic side of himself. After enduring ten years of abuse and having two children with him, Kiranjit, unable to bear the brutality and repeated rapes at the hands of her husband any longer, sets fire to his feet while he is sleeping, unintentionally killing him. Charged with murder, her case comes to the notice of a group of South Asian social workers running an under funded organization called the Southall Black Sisters.
Joe E. Lewis (Frank Sinatra), a successful 1920s Chicago night-club entertainer is invited to work for the Mob during the Prohibition era. His eventual decision to work elsewhere results in his face being slashed and his throat cut, preventing him from continuing with his current act as a singer.
Bukowski's picaresque novel, also titled Factotum, was published in 1975. The book and the film both center on the character of Henry Chinaski, Bukowski’s alter ego, who appears in much of his fiction. Although events in the book take place in Los Angeles in the 1940s, the setting of the film is contemporary.
Salesman Nick Halsey (Will Ferrell) is fired from his job of 16 years following an unspecified incident in Denver related to his alcoholism. He sits in the parking garage after leaving the office, drinking from a flask. He then takes the Swiss Army Knife he was given as a farewell gift and stabs it into his supervisor's car tires, only to leave the knife (which has his name on it) and run away when he is unable to pull it back out from the tire. He immediately drives to a convenience store and buys a large amount of beer. When he returns home, he finds his wife is gone, the locks have been changed, and his belongings have been strewn all over his front lawn. His wife has left him a letter telling him that she is leaving him, also over the Denver incident, and to not contact her.
Cuernavaca, capitale de l'État de Morelos au Mexique, le 1er novembre 1938 traditionnel jour des Morts, fêté en grande liesse par toute la population locale. Geoffrey Firmin, ancien consul britannique, qui a (été) démissionné de sa fonction, déambule, copieusement imbibé, de cantinas en cervecerias, de souvenirs en palabres, parmi l'étrange liesse mortuaire. Son épouse a quitté le Mexique, depuis presque une année. Ils semblent désormais, d'après un vague courrier d'avocat, officiellement divorcés. Anis, brandy, tequila, whisky, mezcal (la boisson des damnés), la brûlure de l'alcool lui permet d'oublier cet invivable abandon et de survivre à sa déchéance, (« les tremblements, voilà ce qui rend cette vie insupportable. Mais ils s'apaisent, si on s'y prend bien, avec la nécessaire lampée, la dose thérapeutique »).
Omar Ali is a young man living in Battersea in the Wandsworth area of South London, right by the railway station during the mid-1980s. His father, Hussein, once a famous left-wing British Pakistani journalist in Bombay, lives in London but hates Britain's society and its international politics. His dissatisfaction with the world and a family tragedy have led him to sink into alcoholism, so that Omar has to be his carer. By contrast, Omar's paternal uncle Nasser is a successful entrepreneur and an active member of the London Pakistani community. Omar's father asks his uncle to give Omar a job and, after working for a brief time as a car washer in one of his uncle's garages, he is assigned the task of managing a run-down laundrette and turning it into a profitable business.
Don Anderson is the Mickey's hamburger chain marketing director who helped develop the "Big One", its most popular menu item. When he learns that independent research has discovered a considerable presence of fecal matter in the meat, he travels to the fictitious town of Cody, Colorado to determine if the local Uni-Globe meatpacking processing plant, Mickey's main meat supplier, is guilty of sloppy production. Don's tour shows him only the pristine work areas and most efficient procedures, assuring him that everything the company produces is immaculate.
Based upon the famous 1910 novel of the same name by Danish writer Martin Andersen Nexø, the film is set in the late 1850s and early 1860s. A boat filled with emigrants from Sweden arrives at the Danish island of Bornholm. Among them are Lasse Karlsson and his son Pelle who have moved to Denmark from Skåne County, in southern Sweden, to find work after the death of Pelle's mother. They find employment at a large farm, but find themselves treated as the lowest form of life. It is only as Pelle starts to speak Danish that he begins to gain in confidence, but is still discriminated against as a foreigner. But neither boy nor father is willing to give up their dream of finding a better life than that which they left in Sweden.
Koistinen (Janne Hyytiäinen) is a lonely nightwatchman tasked with guarding a shopping mall. He attempts to socialize, but is treated coldly by his manager and subjected to mocking by his colleagues. While he is drinking alone in a bar, he catches the eye of some criminals headed by Lindholm (Ilkka Koivula) who learn of his occupation. Koistinen's only human contact is the grill vendor Aila (Maria Heiskanen) to whom he outlines his plans of starting his own company.
Andy "Champ" Purcell (Wallace Beery) is the former world heavyweight champion, now down on his luck and living in squalid conditions with his eight-year-old son "Dink" in Tijuana, Mexico. Champ attempts to train and to convince promoters to set up a fight for him, but his efforts are consistently stymied by his alcoholism. Dink is repeatedly disappointed and let down by his father's irresponsible actions and frequent broken promises to quit drinking, but his utter devotion to his father nonetheless never wavers.
The film depicts the lives and misadventures of two "resting" (struggling and unemployed) young actor friends in late-1969 London. They are the flamboyant alcoholic Withnail and "I" (named "Marwood" in the published screenplay but not in the credits) as his more level-headed, anxiety-prone, and ennui-crippled friend and the film's narrator. Withnail is filled with indignation over life’s injustices, despite his privileged background. He rages against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune all the more because he blames others for the adverse consequences of his exuberant arrogance, flagrant narcissism and habitual lying, alcoholism, and drug use. Withnail sets the tone for the friendship, with Marwood going along with whatever Withnail wants to do. They live in a filthy Georgian flat in Camden Town. While they wait for a part, daily life revolves around getting coins to use in the meters that provide gas or electricity, going to collect benefits, and waiting for the pubs to open so they can drink and be somewhere with heating. Their only other company at the flat besides each other is the local drug dealer, Danny; a somewhat distasteful man with far out, often bizarre viewpoints on the current state of affairs and a knack for irritating Withnail.
In 1831, Sydney is a frontier town, full of ex-convicts. The new Governor, Sir Richard (Cecil Parker), arrives with his cheery but indolent nephew, the Honorable Charles Adare (Michael Wilding). Charles, who is hoping to make his fortune, is befriended by gruff Samson Flusky (Joseph Cotten), a prosperous businessman who was previously a transported convict, possibly a murderer. Sam says that because he has bought the legal limit of land, he wants Charles to buy up land and then sell it to him for a tidy profit so that Sam can accumulate even more frontier territory. Though the Governor instructs him not to go, Charles is invited to dinner at Sam's house and discovers that he already knows Sam's wife, Lady Henrietta (Ingrid Bergman). She is now a hopeless alcoholic who is socially shunned, but she used to be a good friend of Charles' sister when they were children in Ireland.
In California, an alcoholic named Julia (Tilda Swinton) is out of control, partying every night, and waking up in unknown homes with no memory of the previous night. Her reckless behavior costs her her job and she begins to go broke. She soon meets a mother, Elena (Kate del Castillo), at an AA meeting. Elena takes Julia into her apartment after finding her passed out on the pavement one night. The following morning Elena explains that she wants to kidnap her son Tom (Aidan Gould) from his wealthy grandfather and asks Julia to participate for $50,000. Julia declines, but after some time changes her mind. She visits an old friend to ask for his cooperation, but her offer is refused. She rides to the Mexican border, kidnaps the little boy and blackmails Elena's father-in-law for $2 million. The police discover her whereabouts and she flees, accidentally crashing her car through the wall dividing United States and Mexico. There, the boy is kidnapped in turn by Mexican kidnappers. Her friend Mitch (Saul Rubinek) arrives in Mexico and gives Julia the ransom money. During the exchange, the Mexican kidnappers escape with the money, leaving the boy safely with Julia.