there really was no movie like it. It was sort of like Crooklyn, sort of like Waiting to Exhale, but by and large it was its own thing. As such, there's little stereotyping and predicability going on; as someone said before, it created most of the tropes one could accuse it of.

Also, if a film is going for melodrama and does it right, that should not be considered a negative, Soul Food is absolutely a melodrama, but that's what it's going for. Hell, Imitation of Life is a melodrama too, but that's what IT'S going for.