Our Little Secret review (2024)
Our Little Secret marks another very enjoyable notch in the win column for Lindsay Lohan’s career resurgence. And this Christmas rom com might be her best one yet.
Lohan has been on a bit of a roll in Netflix exclusive films Irish Wish and Falling for Christmas. Our Last Secret plays out like a more thoughtful Christmas film than the standard Hallmark and Lifetime assembly line offerings.
Avery (Lohan) is heading to London for a big job opportunity. Logan (Ian Harding) doesn’t think Avery is leaving simply for her career. It’s more that Avery is struggling to stay in her childhood home with her father (Henry Czerny, Mission – Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part One) after the death of her mother. Logan has special insight since he’s known Avery for years, first as a best friend and then as her boyfriend.
He’s not thrilled Avery is leaving and makes one desperate plea to make her stay. That goes horribly wrong and the two don’t speak for over a decade.
It’s Christmastime and Avery is planning to meet her boyfriend Cameron’s (Jon Rudnitsky) family. While his father, Leo (Dan Bucatinsky), is perfectly relaxed, Avery’s already been briefed that his mother, Erica (Kristin Chenoweth) can be a little a lot prickly. Making a good impression is key for the stressed-out Avery. That’s about to become a lot more stressful when Cameron’s sister, Cassie (Katie Baker), brings home her boyfriend…Logan.
Opting to not make a big spectacle of this disastrous coincidence, Avery sells Logan on the idea of them not mentioning their romantic history. Logan reluctantly agrees, but after seeing Avery flailing and failing at every step to win over Erica makes his own proposal. If Avery can help him on a proposal for developer Stan (Tim Meadows), he’ll help Avery get on Erica’s good side.
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That quickly proves harder than either anticipated as various obstacles get in the way like Erica’s ever-present dog, Cameron and Cassie’s conniving little brother Callum (Jake Brennan) and the return of Cameron’s ex, Sophie (Ash Santos).
Director Stephen Herek (Dog Gone) does a nice job of steering these wacky circumstances. A good rom com has lots of pratfalls, but it’s also necessary to avoid making it too cluttered and junky. It’s actually better to have some quiet moments to let the performers shine in developing their characters.
Debuting screenwriter Hailey DeDominicis juggles the characters well while smoothly adding more layers and insight into the family. Not everything is as golden as Erica would like it to appear no matter how perfect they appear in the annual family portrait. Per the title, Our Little Secret has more private matters that isn’t known to everyone until Avery and Logan arrive.
Even if she doesn’t aspire to do anything more than rom coms, DeDominicis clearly could have a very stable and successful screenwriting career if Our Little Secret is any indication.
Lohan is terrific here. She has such a vibrancy and a seemingly tangible appreciation of being featured in quality films again. It almost seems like she’s betting on herself with these Netflix films and will give her all to ensure they succeed. The burden isn’t all on Lohan for Our Little Secret. The supporting cast more than pulls their weight with plenty of fun performances all around. Harding slips into annoyed ex to concerned friend in a way that doesn’t feel overly abrupt.
Chenoweth is so much fun as the icy potential mother-in-law presenting a seemingly unscalable mountain for Avery to overcome. Meadows, Bucantinsky, Rudnitsky, Baker, Brennan and Judy Reyes are all solid in their roles.
Andrea Doyle’s set decoration fully realizes a family with a few bucks to spare and the willingness to go big for every moment.
Our Little Secret is another winning effort from Lohan and a great way to kick off the post-Thanksgiving season when the Christmas movie bonanza begins.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Photo Credit: Netflix
Check out Lohan and Meadows’ earlier collaboration in Mean Girls now on 4K at Amazon.
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