One of the early films that heralded the start of Netflix’s barrage of Christmas movies this year is the two-week-old “Hot Frosty.” Despite its utterly silly premise, the Lacey Chabert-Dustin Milligan rom-com somewhat worked for me due to its genuinely uninhibited commitment to embracing the said silliness. This week, Netflix brings Lacey Chabert’s “Mean Girls” colleague, Lindsay Lohan, with another conventionally made movie solely to spread Yuletide cheers. However, unlike “Hot Frosty,” “Our Little Secret” does not revel in its silliness. It tries to rise above it and fails.
Directed by Stephen Herek, “Our Little Secret” starts with a cutesy, warmly-told, animated clip that introduces Avery (Lohan) and Logan (Ian Harding). The film takes the oddly intriguing route of having the couple break up unceremoniously right after the animated clip (and Avery’s dad) paints the picture of Avery and Logan as an inseparable couple. Then we jump ahead ten years with Netflix promoting some of its landmark shows in a collage that depicts the passing of time. All this happens within the first ten minutes.
It becomes understandable that Avery and Logan are destined to meet again as we see a split-screen montage of the two at their respective professions. Avery is successful in the corporate world as a Business Consultant, whereas Logan finds his footing in the world of Real Estate Development. Logan is dating Cassie (Katie Baker), while Avery is quite involved with Cameron (Jon Rudnitsky). Three days before Christmas, we see Logan and Avery prepare for their separate trips to meet their respective partner’s parents, and spend Christmas there.
With a screenplay by Hailey DeDominicis, “Our Little Secret” wears its heart on its sleeves. It is neither surprising nor intended to be a surprise that Cassie and Cameron are siblings. Thus Logan and Avery meet each other, in the house of current love interests. With Cassie and Cam’s parents, young brother Callum, and other family friends around the house, Avery convinces Logan to hide their past from their present companions, lest it becomes too weird. Logan reluctantly agrees to partake in the charade.
Thus we begin the journey of lies, masquerades and eventual blackmails. With Cassie and Cam’s mother, Erica (Kristin Chenoweth) performing the duties of the foreboding matriarch of the family, “Our Little Secrets” relies a lot on Avery and Logan, especially Avery, getting into sticky situations with her. Lohan and Chenoweth work well when pitted against each other. One of the film’s bright spots, perhaps the only bright spot, is the tete-a-tete between the two women as they start on the wrong foot. There are more sparks, even if those reflect animosity, between Lohan’s Avery and Chenoweth’s Erica than between Avery and Harding’s Logan.
And this lack of chemistry hurts the film massively. The film’s decision not to invest much time and effort in establishing the history of this supposedly adored pair backfires a little as the audience has nothing except the initial proclamation that Avery and Logan belong together. It is not to say Lohan and Harding delivered subpar performances. Quite the contrary, they are effortlessly funny and charming. It’s just they are not romantic together, even if they work well as a sitcom pair. It is as if we are trying to force a rom-com with Phoebe and Chandler.
Speaking of sit-coms, some of the ‘funny’ shticks that “Our Little Secret” carries out are too hackneyed to be salvaged by Lohan’s earnest efforts. Getting high and handling a somber situation, finding yourself in a sticky situation and blaming the dog for it – these are a little too familiar to garner some genuine laughs. The film throws a couple of ‘other’ surprises towards the end, in a bid to create comedy via chaos. Some of them land and some of them do not.
A second, but major, gripe one could have with “Our Little Secret” is that it hardly feels like a “Christmas Movie.” Sure, there are plenty of shots with lighted houses and decorated streets. And yet, the story could be set in Thanksgiving for all you care. Something we could not say for “Hot Frosty.” As we find ourselves in the desired spot where Avery and Logan reunite, with a forced callback to its opening scene, one cannot help but feel the sensation of missing a step or two.
