After taking nearly a decade off, Lindsay Lohan returned to film in 2022 with a starring role in the Netflix romantic holiday comedy “Falling for Christmas.” 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 comedian who has decided to forge her own path in the new studio system as an actress-producer playing some of Old Hollywood’s brightest stars. And the films are richer for it.

“Our Little Secret” is the slickest of the three, probably because director Stephen Herek has a strong background in traditional mid-budget studios. He is the director 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 its better-known titles, it feels much more like a traditional movie made to be seen on the big screen with your family over the Thanksgiving holiday than most films. -for TV or streaming Holiday movies released this time of year.

Lohan stars as Avery, a successful business consultant with her own company who meets her boyfriend Cam’s (Jon Rudnitsky) family for the first time. Cam’s sister Cassie (Katie Baker) also brings her boyfriend Logan (Ian Harding) home to meet the parents. The twist? In the opening scene, we learn that Avery and Logan, who had been best friends since they were children before dating during their teens and twenties, had a serious breakup ten years earlier, the same year Avery’s mother died. Now these two have to get through a four-day holiday weekend with Cam and Cassie’s ultra-wealthy parents, Erica (Kristin Chenoweth) and Leonard (Dan Bucatinsky). The result is a perfectly executed marriage-remarriage style comedy, with new relationship twists and decidedly crazy situations thrown at Avery and Logan every ten minutes.

Like the leading ladies of many classic Hollywood comedies, Lohan’s Avery is a plucky 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 by an amber glow at all times of the day. But the glamor is understated, allowing her to feel like a somewhat elevated woman. Lohan has always played these types of relatable, but somewhat unreachable characters well. Avery could easily be one of the grown-up teens she played in “The Parent Trap,” “Freaky Friday” or “Mean Girls.”

She develops an easy chemistry with Harding, who plays Logan as a genuinely nice guy who has made a few mistakes but is doing his best to keep his life going. Unlike many of these types of Christmas rom-coms, Harding doesn’t play Logan as an overly romantic hunk. Instead, he takes a cagey approach and acts 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 basis of their deep-rooted friendship in the first place, rather than some under-baked movie-style “love” that feels more like possession.

Herek’s direction is playful, at times placing us in Avery’s POV as she creeps through Erica’s McMansion with a sense of discomfort. In one crazy sequence, Avery is forced to give a talk at a children’s service at the family church after accidentally consuming a bag full of weed gummies. The scene gives Lohan a wonderful showcase of her comedic acting, while a CGI-animated Mother Mary statue adds a charming, surreal icing on the cake.

Chenoweth is fantastic as a heartwarming 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 also insulting you to your face with such sweet honey. tongue that it takes a while before you 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 standard styles. Katie Baker is fun as the vain Cassie, a role that could easily have been a scene stealer like Mary Astor in ‘The Palm Beach Story’, but who also doesn’t get enough material to really shine.

The theme of grief and Avery’s attempt to push away everything that reminds her of her mother is also not as developed as it could be, leaving some of the plot in the third act a bit uneven. Then again, because of how well-developed Avery and Logan’s friendship is, the actors are able to achieve a level of sincerity in these more emotional scenes that it all works regardless.

Overall, “Our Little Secret” is a fun, mostly family-friendly Christmas comedy that finds Lohan operating in the comedic mode she is best at. It just goes to show that if studios would back these types of mid-budget films for theatrical release, we might have movie stars again. Now That would be a Christmas miracle.