In Britain we are in the middle of the Christmas and New Year holiday season and the cinemas are filled with Christmas themed films. One of them is the romantic comedy The Holiday, starring Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, Jack Black and Jude Law.

In this programme we hear a review of the film from BBC film critic Mark Kermode. As in many of Mark's reviews he uses a range of imaginative and descriptive vocabulary when commenting on the film.

Before you listen to the programme look at the comprehension questions below. You can hear the answers in the programme and test your understanding with the quiz from the 'Extras' section below. You can also download the script and audio for this programme.

1: What does Mark think about the length of the film?
2: How does Mark describe the film?
3: How does Mark feel the film compares to another romantic comedy, Love Actually?

Listen
	'The Holiday' review

Vocabulary from the programme

a rom-com
a romantic comedy

to praise
to say that something is good

to criticise
to say that something is bad

movie trailers
short advertisements for films, often including scenes from the films being promoted

to swap
to exchange one thing for something else

Example
At the end of the football match the teams swapped shirts

to blossom
to begin to grow

at tops
at the most, a maximum of

Example
The journey should take at tops 25 minutes.

a pastiche
something in writing or film, for example, which deliberately copies the style of another form of writing or film

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Extras

Try the comprehension questions
Programme script (pdf - 21 k)
Download this programme (mp3 - 2 mb)
Mark Kermode's film review page