Our Little Secret Review – Lindsay Lohan’s Netflix Comedy Is A Minor Victory | Lindsay Lohan

TThe return of Lindsay Lohan, who redefined herself as movie star rather than tabloid joke, coincided with Netflix’s annual rebrand as the home of cheap and cheerful Christmas fodder, easily made and easily consumed. It was a smart, low-stakes, high-exposure comeback, with 2022’s Falling into Christmas, her first starring role in nearly a decade, a no-brainer during the streamer’s seasonal onslaught.

It hardly mattered that it wasn’t very good, it wasn’t really should be, it just gave us proof that Lohan still had the same magnetism that made her a star in the first place. But her next film with Netflix wasn’t so easy – the genuinely gritty Irish Wish – and suddenly her dalliance with the streamer felt less like a restart and more like a long hiatus, trapping her in a state she really needed to drive away from (next year’s Freaky Friday sequel should help with that). Her third, and contractually final, outing with the platform is the best of the lot, but only because the bar is so low we can’t even see it, not just for Lohan’s latest run, but for Netflix’s celebratory oeuvre as a whole.

Our Little Secret, to its credit, plays less like another attempt to recycle the junky Hallmark formula and more like an attempt to emulate a leaner 2000s comedy. There are shades of Meet the Parents and Four Christmases and even a director from that era at the helm, Stephen Herek, who worked with stars like Mark Wahlberg, Angelina Jolie and Tommy Lee Jones in the same decade. It’s not as glossy or as raunchy as last year’s surprise smash Anyone But You, but it’s trying to appeal to the same audience, those who grew up on studio rom-coms that boasted a bit more ambition. Like many of those movies, it also revolves around a deception, and like Anyone But You, it’s another one that’s so poorly set up that you wonder why they even bothered to lie in the first place.

It starts in 2014 when Avery (Lohan) and her boyfriend Logan (Ian Harding) argue into her surprise party. She moves to London and in a desperate attempt to stop her from going away, Logan proposes. She says no and he storms off. A decade later, and both are with new partners, heading out of town on vacation. For the first time, they will both meet their other half’s parents, but in a twist that requires a Santa’s sack of unasked questions from us, they find out that they spend Christmas with the same family. Their partners are siblings, and after a “wait, why, huh?” discussion, they choose not to tell anyone that they have ever been together.

It’s a decision that never makes much sense, but leads the couple down a long drawn-out journey of accidentally ingesting weed gum, fake dog stomach pumps, underage drinking, extortion and embarrassing church speeches. If none of this is as funny as it should be (the movie actually isn’t that funny at all), it’s just carefully enough thanks to a fast pace and a lively cast. Around the edges, there’s more talent than we’re used to seeing here with former Saturday Night Live cast members Tim Meadows, Chris Parnell and one-season player Jon Rudnitsky; Scrubs stalwart and Birth/Rebirth standout Judy Reyes; Scandal and The Comeback’s Dan Bucatinsky; Mission: Impossible’s Henry Czerny and, most rewardingly, Kristin Chenoweth. The Wicked star, who plays a viperous Real Housewives-inspired mother, gives the film a heavy lift when she’s on screen, and works well in her wheelhouse (she’s also appeared in festive comedies like Netflix’s Holidate and the aforementioned Four Christmases), but adds flavor to what can often be a bland trifle.

Lohan and Harding are decent enough to tease—the latter has a Seth MacFarlane-esque elasticity that really works here—but the script from first-time writer Hailey DeDominicis isn’t smart or inventive enough to really stretch them. As we close out this year, I pray that no comedy in 2025, or indeed ever again, relies on a scene where a character accidentally swallows edibles, an eye-rollingly overused trope that also suggests cannabis is some sort of terrifying hallucinogen. Instead, it might be better to rely on some gummies while watching Our Little Secret, a perfectly appropriate Christmas comedy that could do with a boost.