starring Sanaa Lathan, Omar Epps
written and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood
124 minutes
First Quarter: 1981. Monica's family moves into the house next door to where Quincy lives with his parents. She likes to play basketball, he does too. He takes issue with her playing basketball (because she is a girl) but she proves to be more than capable on the court. They flirt a little bit but nothing comes of it.
Second Quarter: 1988. Monica and Quincy are both students and play for the girls and boys basketball teams at Crenshaw High School. Quincy gets a lot more support from his father, who plays in the NBA, than Monica does from her family. It comes to him a lot easier. She works at is. Her team loses in the championship game but she still gets a scholarship offer from University of Southern California. Monica and Quincy remain friends and occasionally give each other sidelong glances but nothing happens between them until the night of the dance. They don't go to the dance together but afterwards they talk and...
Third Quarter: 1988-89. Monica and Quincy both start at USC. She has it much harder at first. He is the freshman phenom on the men's basketball team. She is just a freshman on the women's basketball team. The coach gives her a hard time and doesn't make it easy for her. She doesn't get a chance to start until the starting point guard injures her knee.
Quincy finds out that his father has been cheating on his mother. Monica and Quincy were together but he starts sleeping around after he discovers about his father's infidelity. Quincy decides to go pro. Things fall apart between Quincy and Monica about that time for more than one reason.
Fourth Quarter: 1993. Monica has moved to Spain and plays basketball professionally. Quincy has bounced around the NBA and is playing for the Lakers when he gets injured. Monica is lonely in Spain and returns to the United States. She reconnects with Quincy only to discover that he is engaged.
Monica moves back in with her parents. She gets a job at the bank where her father works. She comes to the decision that she has to tell him why she has returned. She doesn't want him to get married. She challenges him to a game of basketball for his heart.
Thoughts
Alfre Woodard plays Monica's mother. I've seen her in plenty of things but the first thing that comes to mind is Luke Cage. Dennis Haysbert plays Quincy's father. I've seen him in a number of things including Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (5 episodes), Major League, Heat, Justice League (3 episodes), and Jarhead.
Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps play Monica and Quincy in the second, third, and fourth quarters of the movie. They looked a little old to be playing them in the high school part of the story. The actors were both in their late twenties at the time and looked it. maybe it would have been less noticeable if they hadn't looked so much older that the other students.
This was my first time watching this movie. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I feared at a couple points that it was getting a little too predictable but each time that I felt that way the story seemed to turn in a direction that I didn't expect. There are melodramatic moments that can also be found in lesser films but on the whole I found this movie to be very enjoyable and worth my time.
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