PENÉLOPE CRUZ

SCREEN GEM The Hi-Lo Country (1998)

THE PREMISE This post-WWII Western directed by — hey, look at that! — The Queen's Stephen Frears, concerns two cowpokes (Billy Crudup and Woody Harrelson) caught up in a heartbreaking love rhombus.

WHY IT'S GREAT Cruz mixes sexy and sweet in this little-seen soap-opera-on-the-plains, her first major American film.