From Jeremy Kibler

Ever since the return of Lindsay Lohan in 2022’s trifling Falling for Christmas—Netflix’s tinsel-covered, scarf-filled version of Overboard—the grown-up child star is ready for another photogenic vehicle to prove she’s still got that star power. As these things go, Our Little Secret is a surprising catch, and that’s not even by grading on a curve. 

Ten years ago, Avery (Lohan) and Logan (Ian Harding) were best friends who fell deeply in love. Avery moving away for work and Logan’s drunken/forced marriage proposal at her going-away party ended their relationship. To show the passage of a whole decade, there’s a strange montage where the popularity of Netflix shows becoming cultural phenomenons get double the attention while Bernie Sanders’ mittens meme basically stands for COVID-19. Now, Avery is a successful consultant in a new relationship with Cameron (Jon Rudnitsky), and Logan is a commercial real estate developer with materialistic blonde Forever Student Cassie (Katie Baker). But guess what? Cameron and Cassie are siblings, and neither Avery nor Logan know it yet, until they go to meet the parents for Christmas. At first, they pretend to not know one another and have their prickly banter in secret. Then they decide to help each other get on the good side of ageless matriarch Erica (Kristin Chenoweth). Could old feelings resurface? 

This sounds like a dumb sitcom premise—and some viewers may still find the whole execution to go the same way—but Our Little Secret works. It seems unlikely that the two significant others, who have never met the family before, would be sent to retrieve a Christmas tree together, but whatever! Lohan and Ian Harding (Pretty Little Liars), while appealing on her own, don’t really have the necessary amount of chemistry to feel the emotional weight of a relationship worth fighting for, either, but they are playing exes, so that’s not a total deal-breaker. It’s already baked in that the destination is inevitable, and yet, along the way, there are enough curveballs. 

A gift exchange turns into a contrived but still funny and slightly smarter snowballing of unloaded secrets in the style of a screwball comedy, or Crazy, Stupid, Love. There’s quite the entertaining treasure trove of a supporting cast, obviously starting with Kristin Chenoweth a hilariously cutting comedic force as a future mother-in-law from hell. There’s also Tim Meadows and Judy Reyes, as Cassie’s family’s married friends, and Henry Czerny, who’s a quirky sweetheart as Avery’s father.

Journeyman director Stephen Herek (whose eclectic career has ranged from Critters and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure to Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, The Mighty Ducks and Mr. Holland’s Opus) and debuting screenwriter Hailey DeDominicis find a decent balance between what is mostly a Christmas farce with a slight undercurrent of bittersweet poignancy. Over the holidays, Avery still feels the loss of her mother, and without canceling out the lightness or coming across tonally awkward, that pang of melancholy is genuine. Lohan also lands a few of the comic bits with her timing, like getting high on TCH gummies in church or manipulating a whole trip to the vet after blaming the family dog for eating a jar of Erica’s cookies made for her cookie exchange. 

If nothing else, Lohan and company make you buy the whole thing and make you happy for 100 minutes. It’s gamely performed and about as artfully made as one of these Netflix Christmas Movies™️ gets. Perhaps this time of year just smooths the brain, but Our Little Secret does what it sets out to do without reinventing the mistletoe. 

Rating: 3/5

Our Little Secret is on Netflix.

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