In his latest opus, director Fernando Trueba returns to the travails of a Spanish film crew, eighteen years after The Girl of Your Dreams. Whereas in the earlier film, a musical was being made in Nazi Germany, this time the project is a fictionalized biography of queen Isabella I of Castille, a made-in-Spain Hollywood epic financed by American capital under the watchful eyes of Generalísimo Franco. In the ensuing years, Spanish actress Macarena Granada (Penelope Cruz) has become a Tinseltown star and The Queen of Spain is her homecoming movie. Once again, under the guise of a human comedy, Trueba's valentine to the movies also explores a dark chapter in the history of his country. One of the film's many pleasures is to reconnect with the large ensemble that made The Girl of Your Dreams such a sparkling delight. Ms. Cruz has never looked lovelier. Her closing line is destined to figure prominently in the annals of Spanish film history.