Melodrama in Love & Basketball

Melodrama is the part in theatre, movies, or in television where people are acting extreme or it can be said that they are over reacting. When I say that people are acting extreme or over reacting, I mean that people are exaggerating simple motions, facial expressions or lines. The word melodrama can be broken down into its literal meaning which is "drama with music." An instance of melodrama can be seen in the movie Love & Basketball, during the part where the characters Monica and Quincy are playing a game of basketball to determine whether or not Quincy should marry the airline stewardess he is engaged to or marry Monica instead. During this scene, they are in a driveway playing. They stop talking and then music starts to play and as the game intensifies the song gets louder a game of basketball. There is a point where Quincy bumps into Monica and it takes her about a minute to fall to the ground, and her facial expression is as if she just got shot. This scene of the movie can be seen as realistic meaning that these could be actual events, however the actress over reacts and her motions and facial expressions are slowed. When the game is winding down so does the song, but at the climax of the action is when the song had the loudest pitch and hit the highest notes of the song that is held for a time. At the end of the climax Monica loses the game and the music fades out to complete silence, as matter of a fact everything goes silent as she walks off the court in defeat. So the drama can be intensified with a moment of silence after the melodramatic music and action. This example in Love & Basketball is a classic example of a melodramatic moment.