Our Little Secret movie review (2024)

After taking a break for almost a decade, Lindsay Lohan returned to the movies in 2022 with a starring role in the Christmas romantic comedy “Falling for Christmas” on Netflix. Since then, she’s 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 comedian who has decided to make her own way in the new studio system as an actor-producer in the vein of some of Old Hollywood’s most savvy stars. And the movies are richer for it.

“Our Little Secret” is the smartest of the three, probably because director Stephen Herek has a strong background in traditional mid-budget studio fare. He is the mastermind 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 have quite the Hollywood sheen of some of his better-known titles, it feels much more like a traditional movie made to be watched on the big screen with your family during the Thanksgiving holiday than most of the made-for-TV or streaming holiday movies that are pulled this time of year.

Lohan stars as Avery, a successful business consultant with her own firm who meets the family of her boyfriend Cam (Jon Rudnitsky) for the first time. Cam’s sister Cassie (Katie Baker) also brings her boyfriend Logan (Ian Harding) home to meet the parents. Twist? In the opening scene, we learn that Avery and Logan, who had been best friends since they were kids before dating through their teens and twenties, had a bad breakup ten years earlier, the same year Avery’s mother died. Now these two must go 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 brave fish out of water, but always impeccably dressed and styled. She sleeps with perfect hair and a full face of “natural” makeup, her face illuminated at any time of the day by an amber glow. But the glamor is understated, allowing her to feel like a slightly elevated everywoman. Lohan has always played these kinds of relatable, but slightly out of reach, characters well. Avery could easily be one of the teenagers she played in “The Parent Trap,” “Freaky Friday” or “Mean Girls,” all grown up.

She creates an easy chemistry with Harding, who plays Logan as a really nice guy who has made a few mistakes but is trying his best to keep his life going. Unlike many of these Christmas rom-coms, Harding doesn’t play Logan as an overly romantic hunk. Instead, he takes a low-key approach and acts more as an anchor for Avery as she tries to make a good impression on Cam’s parents instead of trying to win her back. This choice primarily allows us to see the basis of their deep-rooted friendship, rather than any underbaked cinematic “love” 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 a crazy sequence, Avery has to give a reading at a children’s service at the family’s church when she accidentally eats a bag full of weed gum. The scene gives Lohan a wonderful showcase of her comedic facial acting, while a CGI-animated Mother Mary statue adds a charmingly surreal cherry on top.

Chenoweth is fantastic as a blessed southern queen bee who runs her house like a strict navy captain, the kind who makes you cookies but dictates how many you can eat while 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 don’t get enough scenes to fully develop beyond their stock tropes. Katie Baker is fun as the vain Cassie, a role that could very easily have been a scene-stealer like Mary Astor in “The Palm Beach Story,” but similarly isn’t 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. But again because of how good the friendship is between Avery and Logan, the actors are able to achieve a level of sincerity in these more emotional scenes that it all works regardless.

All in all, “Our Little Secret” is a fun, mostly family-friendly Christmas comedy, with Lohan working in her best comedic mode. If nothing else, it makes the case once again that if the studios would support this kind of mid-budget movie for theatrical release, maybe we’d have movie stars again. Now to would be a Christmas miracle.