2016 isn’t shaping up to be Penélope Cruz’s finest hour, with “Zoolander 2,” “The Brothers Grimsby” and last month’s ill-received “Ma Ma” all attached to her name. Hopefully, then, “The Queen of Spain,” the newest film from director Fernando Trueba (“Chico & Rita”), will change things for the better. After all, their first team-up, 1992’s “Belle Epoque,” won Trueba the Foreign Language Oscar, and the new film’s first teaser is promising something visually splendid. That’s a good start.
READ MORE: Review: Julio Medem’s Woefully Misguided ‘Ma Ma’ Starring Penélope Cruz
The first look, made available by Universal Spain’s Twitter account, is only 35 seconds long, but it makes the most out of such limited time. From its lavish period details to eye-popping cinematography from José Luis Alcaine, there’s not a lot to see, but there’s certainly a lot to admire. And while Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin and J.A. Bayona, the filmmaker behind “The Orphanage,” this fall’s “A Monster Calls” and the upcoming “Jurassic World” sequel, round out the cast, this trailer is all about Cruz, and she looks as beautiful as ever.
The film is a sequel to Trueba’s 1998 picture “The Girl Of Your Dreams,” which won seven Goya Awards (the Spanish equivalent to the Oscars), and saw Cruz play a Spanish movie star, who, in the follow-up here, returns to her roots in Madrid while making a big-budget Hollywood movie. If you’re in Spain, “The Queen of Spain” comes into theaters on November 25. We hope we’ll see it at the fall festivals, if not before.
‘La niña de tus ojos’ ha vuelto… pero ahora es #LaReinaDeEspaña. Dirige Fernando Trueba ¡25 de Noviembre en Cines!https://t.co/HYAus8s3Hz
— Universal Pictures (@Universal_Spain) June 21, 2016
