Tonight's Movie: Heaven Down Here (2023)

The Hallmark Christmas movie HEAVEN DOWN HERE (2023) is quite different from the usual Hallmark holiday fare.

There's no romance to speak of, and indeed, the storylines are pretty heavy going for much of the film, before finally landing in more typically uplifting Hallmark territory.

The movie concerns a disparate group of people who find themselves stranded in a diner on Christmas Eve thanks to a massive snowstorm and unlucky circumstances.

Imani (Krystal Joy Brown) plays a recently widowed waitress who's financially struggling as she raises her two young children (Jayden Oniah and Isabel Birch).

Imani's manager Dan (Richard Harmon) is a jerk who makes her work on Christmas Eve and then even forces her to stay late, causing her to be marooned at the diner due to the storm.

Little does Imani know that Dan, having no place to go for Christmas, is hiding in a back room playing video games...

Also stranded at the diner is Felix (Juan Riedinger), the pastor of a struggling church who has a broken family in his past, including an estranged son (Jace Fleming).

And Clara (Tina Lifford), a retired teacher turned hospice caregiver, has been contending with a demanding, unhappy patient (Phylicia Rashad, THE COSBY SHOW) and the fact that her daughter (Kelcey Mawema) will soon be leaving to attend college in California.

Imani, Dan, Felix, and Clara spend Christmas Eve together overnight at the diner and gradually open up and impact each other in positive yet quite believable ways. These are struggling, human people but thanks to their Christmas Eve together their lives improve for the better.

There's a giant coincidental twist near the end, which won't be revealed here, which is seemingly too good to be true, as it solves multiple problems at once.

That said, the cast all sell this unexpected development with everything they've got, and honestly, everyone's situations have been so bleak up to that point that the plot twist is most welcome. The movie was dark enough early on that I was dubious it would be able to pull out of that mood for a nice Christmasy ending, but it definitely makes it in the end.

The movie does a good job making the point that there's often more going on with people than what we see on the surface, and it thus unscores the importance of treating others with grace and kindness. 

Clara, in particular, didn't have much reason to go out of her way to help her cranky employer, yet in doing so she changed multiple lives.

The movie also spends a little more time on religious faith than the average Hallmark film, which was welcome. Riedinger, playing the pastor, has an odd accent which comes and goes; he's otherwise effective as an imperfect man of God.

Brown is a Broadway actress whose credits included HAMILTON, and she has multiple chances to sing, which also makes this film a little different. She's also a believable dramatic actress and does a nice job in her role.

Rashad and Lifford are two pros who handle their edgy storyline with grace and leave us smiling in the end.

HEAVEN DOWN HERE was written by Alison McKenzie and Shana Lloyd. It was directed by Anne Wheeler.

HEAVEN DOWN HERE originally aired on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel. It's available on a two-film DVD along with HOLIDAY ROAD (2023).

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