心灵封闭已久的中年教师戈列格里斯，无意间在书店发现葡萄牙作家普拉多的 随笔《文字炼金师》，被书中充满哲思的文字吸引，毅然抛下井然有序的生活，展开探索心灵、寻找生命终极答案的旅程……在里斯本，戈列格里斯探访普拉多的生平，一步步重建这位非凡医生、天才作家的影像，揭开葡萄牙独裁政权时期的一段隐秘的黑暗。在一步步走近了解普拉多的同时，格列格里斯也检视自己，重新找回生活的节奏和意义。

　　影片来自于真实的故事，小镇上的记者亚当（约翰·卡拉辛斯基 John Krasinski 饰）和绿色和平组织的一位志愿者瑞秋（德鲁·巴里摩尔 Drew Barrymore 饰）加入到了拯救北极圈灰鲸的行动中去。 两人必须联合阿拉斯加的因纽特人，对抗石油公司以及苏联和美国的军队的反对——在当时的冷战背景下，他们终于得到了世界的关注，冷战的阴影也因拯救这种濒临灭绝的动物行动而得到缓解。

　　Siskel and Ebert once ran a special show entitled "Movies I'm Embarrassed to Admit I Liked." I suppose that if I composed such a list of guilty pleasures, this one would be one of them . . . but upon reflection, it's really a lot better than that. Fifteen year-old science prodigy Mitch (Gabe Jarret) is recruited by ambitious college professor William Atherton (in yet another of his patented roles as a loathsome character) to work on the professor's prize laser project, not knowing that the prof is really developing a government weapon. Along the way, Mitch is befriended by Chris (Val Kilmer), another prodigy a few years his senior who teaches the Mitch how to loosen up.
　　This could have degenerated into nothing more than just another teen revenge comedy, but there's so much more: the dialogue is laced with sharp wit; there are some lovely scenes that have nothing to do with the story yet are carefully set up, almost as blackouts (e.g., Mitch goes to a lecture at which a few students have left tape recorders instead of attending; later, at another lecture there are more tape recorders than students; and, in a final scene, one large tape recorder gives the lecture to a room populated by nothing but other small recorders!); and throw-away scenes that make you want to stop and back up the tape (e.g., Chris off-handedly cutting a slice off a bar of solid nitrogen to make a slug for the coffee machine).
　　It's also one of the few movies to boast the presence of the memorable Michelle Meyerink -- as Jordan, the "girl-nerd" who made being smart and female something to be emulated. And there's Tears for Fears great song, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" providing the perfect coda as the closing credits begin to roll . . . . Yes: really now, what's there to be embarrassed about?

　　Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me; the carriage held but just ourselves and immortality” – Emily Dickinson
　　If Death took a holiday, the guns would go silent in Iraq, the slaughter on our nation’s highways would cease, and the news media would be compelled to cover positive events in the humanities, arts, and sciences. Unfortunately, Death has not had a vacation in recorded history, but Mitchell Leisen’s 1934 fantasy, Death Takes a Holiday, allows us to consider the possibility. Co-written by Maxwell Anderson and Gladys Lehman and based on the play "La Morte in Vacanza" by Alberto Casella, Death Takes a Holiday stars Frederic March as the Grim Reaper who takes on human form in an attempt to discover why men fear him so much. Why he has waited 5,000 years to satisfy this curiosity is not explained.
　　[Spoiler] After a brief tryout as a shadowy figure who scares the daylights out of those that cross his path, Death shows up at, of all places, an upscale party at an Italian villa, posing as the mysterious Prince Sirki. Only one person knows who he really is, the host Duke Lambert (Guy Standing), and he is sworn to secrecy. Sirki proceeds to fascinate the guests. Given to bursts of wit and poetry, he can just as quickly turn sullen and threatening, and some soon find out that it is better not to look too deeply into his eyes. During the three days in which the Prince is at the villa, however, people all over the world miraculously escape death and potential suicides are doomed to frustration.
　　To see what’s behind all the conversation about love, the suave but naïve Prince Sirki falls for the irresistible Grazia (Evelyn Venable), the daughter of one of Duke’s friends. Grazia knows who Death is but does not fear him, much to the chagrin of her fiancé, Corrado (Kent Taylor) who has developed a strong disdain for Prince Charming.
　　More sinister than Brad Pitt in the 1998 remake Meet Joe Black, March turns in a very convincing performance as the creepy yet strangely appealing guest. Although the ending is melodramatic, the emotions are very real and the suggestion that Death may in reality be a friend disguised as a foe is quite touching.
　　(Howard Schumann, talkingpix.co.uk)
　　In this wearisome and predictable plot line, Death falls in love and bores us to death talking about it.
　　(Dennis Schwartz, homepages.sover.net)
　　I've heard DRACULA was advertised with the tag line "The Weirdest Love Story ever told!" (this is probably a paraphrase), but at heart, I've never felt that you could honestly call that movie a love story. The tag line would be much more appropriate for this one, since it ultimately boils down to what amounts to a love story. This movie is very good indeed, particularly if you consider that it is built around a concept that could have easily been handled in a cute or facile manner. Instead, it is handled as seriously as possible, with some real thought put into how death would try to come to terms with a life and an outlook that was to that point totally unfamiliar to him; much of the credit does go to Fredric March in the title role. It's quite scary when it needs to be, particularly during the first twenty minutes. From then on, it deals with its themes with subtlety, a quiet wit, an enduring sadness, and an everpresent tension on how Death might react if crossed. It's not perfect; some of the dialogue is self-conscious and artificial, as if the writers knew they were dealing with weighty issues and were trying to be profound. But I am certainly glad they didn't try to turn it into a musical comedy of sorts.
　　(Dave Sindelar, scifilm.org)
　　See also the remake: Death Takes A Holiday (1971)

　　Charlie, a young aristocrat in turn of the century England, meets a boy named Frank on the road to Portsmouth. What Charlie doesn't realize is that Frank is actually Frances, who's donned a disguise to escape working at a brothel. Charlie takes Frank/Frances into his home, and when he discovers her true identity, the two become lovers. He sends her to London to be trained by his mistress in the art of sex, but she learns much more about her identity as a woman. Before the opening credits, explicitly on-screen it reads: "Based on the famous Victorian erotic novel by an anonymous writer".

　　年迈的摇滚明星约翰·奥尔曼（小哈里·康尼克 饰）的专辑销量不佳，热门歌曲人气也逐渐下降。于是他决定暂停事业，重拾活力，并搬到了地中海田园诗般的塞浦路斯岛上一座孤立在悬崖边的房屋中。然而，他追求低调生活的愿望却被频繁的访客打乱。后来，当一段旧情重新燃起时，他又面临着更加复杂的意外。

　　本片是受奥地利剧作家亚瑟·施尼茨勒的《轮舞》的启发，导演费尔南多·梅里尔斯和编剧将原著中摩登又不停变化的螺旋叙事整合成一个故事，通过剧中人物串联起来：他们来自不同的国家和城市，共同讲述在21世纪生动，充满悬念又感人至深的爱情传说。故事起自维也纳，影片美妙的将巴黎，伦敦，布拉迪斯拉发，里约，丹佛和菲尼克斯，不同城市的人们编织出一幅简单却又令人如痴如醉的叙述。