After taking nearly a decade off, Lindsay Lohan made her return to the movies in 2022 with a starring role in the Netflix Christmas romantic comedy "Falling for Christmas." Since then, she has made two more rom-coms with the streamer: "Irish Wish" and this week's "Our Little Secret." What this pivot has proven is that Lohan is a sharp screwball comedienne who has decided to forge her own path in the new studio system as an actress-producer in the mode of some of Old Hollywood's most savvy stars. And the movies are richer for it.
"Our Little Secret" is the slickest of the three, likely because director Stephen Herek has a strong background in traditional mid-budget studio fare. He's the helmer behind films as diverse as "Critters," "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure," "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead," "The Mighty Ducks," and "Mr. Holland's Opus." While this film doesn't quite have the same Hollywood sheen as some of his better-known titles, it plays a lot more like a traditional film that's made to be seen on the big screen with your family during Thanksgiving vacation than most of the made-for-TV or streaming Holiday films that get churned out this time of year.
Lohan stars as Avery, a successful business consultant with her own firm who is meeting the family of her boyfriend Cam (Jon Rudnitsky) for the first time. Cam's sister Cassie (Katie Baker) is also bringing home her boyfriend Logan (Ian Harding) to meet the parents. The twist? In the opening scene, we learn that Avery and Cam, who had been best friends since they were kids before dating throughout their teens and twenties, had a bad breakup ten years earlier, the same year Avery's mother passed away. Now, these two have to get through a four-day holiday weekend with Cam and Cassie's ultra-rich parents, Erica (Kristin Chenoweth) and Leonard (Dan Bucatinsky). The result is a perfectly executed marriage-remarriage style screwball comedy, with new relationship twists and decidedly wacky situations thrown at Avery and Logan every ten minutes.
Like the leading ladies of many classic Hollywood screwball comedies, Lohan's Avery is a plucky fish out of water but always immaculately dressed and styled. She sleeps with perfect hair and a full face of "natural" makeup, her face lit any time of day by an amber glow. But the glamour is understated, allowing her to feel like a slightly elevated every woman. Lohan has always played these kinds of relatable, but slightly out of reach, characters well. Avery could easily be one of the teens she played in "The Parent Trap," "Freaky Friday," or "Mean Girls" all grown up.
She crafts an easy chemistry with Harding, who plays Logan as a genuinely nice guy who has made a few mistakes but is trying his best to keep his life going. Unlike a lot of these kinds of Christmas rom-coms, Harding doesn't play Logan as an overly romantic hunk. Instead, he takes a restrained approach, acting more as an anchor for Avery as she tries to make a good impression on Cam's parents rather than trying to win her back. This choice allows us to see the foundation of their deep-rooted friendship first and foremost, rather than any underbaked movie-style "love" that is more akin to possession.
Herek's direction is playful, at times placing us in Avery's POV as she creeps around Erica's McMansion with a sense of unease. In one zany sequence, Avery must give a reading at a children's service at the family's church having accidentally consumed a bag full of weed gummies. The scene gives Lohan a wonderful showcase of her comic face acting, while a CGI animated Mother Mary statue adds a charmingly surreal cherry on top.
Chenoweth is fantastic as a bless-your-heart Southern Queen Bee who runs her house like a strict Navy captain, the kind that makes you cookies, but dictates how many you can eat, while also insulting you to your face with such a sweet honey tongue that it takes a moment to realize what has happened. The rest of the supporting cast, including Tim Meadows and Judy Reyes as married family friends, unfortunately do not get enough scenes to fully develop beyond their stock tropes. Katie Baker is fun as the vain Cassie, a role that could have very easily been a scene stealer like Mary Astor in "The Palm Beach Story," but is similarly not given enough material to really shine.
The theme of grief and Avery's attempt to push away anything that reminds her of her mother is also not as developed as it could be, making some of the plotting in the third act a little uneven. However, again because of how well fleshed out the friendship is between Avery and Logan, the actors are able to reach levels of sincerity in these more emotional scenes that it all works regardless.
Overall, "Our Little Secret" is a fun, mostly family friendly Christmas screwball comedy with Lohan working in the comedic mode she does best. If nothing else, it makes the case once again that if studios would back these kinds of mid-budget films for theatrical release, maybe we'd have movie stars again. Now that would be a Christmas miracle.
