After a nearly decade-long hiatus, Lindsay Lohan returned to cinema in 2022 with a starring role in the Netflix holiday comedy Falling for Christmas. Since then, she’s filmed two more romantic comedies with the streamer: “Irish Wish” and this week’s “Our Little Secret.” What this pivot proved is that Lohan is a sharp screwball comedian who has decided to forge her own path in the new studio system as an actress and producer in the image of some of old Hollywood’s brightest stars. And the films are richer because of it.

Our Little Secret is the most sophisticated of the three films, likely due to director Stephen Herek’s extensive experience with traditional mid-range studio fare. He is the brains behind such diverse films 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 same Hollywood sheen as some of its better-known titles, it feels much more like a traditional film made to be seen on the big screen with the family during the Thanksgiving holiday than most other films -for television or streaming holiday films produced at this time of year.

Lohan plays 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 their parents. The twist? In the opening scene, we learn that Avery and Logan, who were best friends since childhood before meeting in their teens and twenties, had a bad breakup ten years earlier, the same year Avery’s mother died. Now the two must survive a four-day holiday weekend with Cam and Cassie’s super-rich parents Erica (Kristin Chenoweth) and Leonard (Dan Bucatinsky). The result is a perfectly executed screwball comedy in the marriage and remarriage style, with new twists in relationships and downright crazy situations that Avery and Logan experience 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 immaculately dressed and styled. She sleeps with perfect hair and a full face of “natural” makeup, her face glowing with an amber glow at any time of the day. But the glamor is understated, making her feel like a slightly elevated woman. Lohan has always played such likable but somewhat unattainable characters well. Avery could easily be one of the teenagers she played in The Parent Trap, Freaky Friday, or Mean Girls, and they’re all grown up.

She creates 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 Christmas rom-coms, Harding doesn’t play Logan as an overly romantic hunk. Instead, he takes a more reserved approach, acting 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 foundation of their deep-rooted friendship first and foremost, rather than some half-hearted, movie-style “love” that’s more akin to obsession.

Herek’s direction is playful, at times putting us in Avery’s perspective as she creeps through Erica’s McMansion with a sense of unease. In a crazy sequence, Avery is forced to give a reading at a children’s service at the family’s church after accidentally consuming a bag full of weed gummies. The scene provides Lohan with wonderful proof of her comical visage, while a CGI-animated Mother Mary statue adds a charmingly surreal cherry on top.

Chenoweth is fantastic as a kind-hearted Southern queen bee who runs her house like a stern naval captain, the kind who bakes you cookies but dictates how many you can eat, and who simultaneously insults you with such a sweet honeyed tongue that it It takes a moment to realize what 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 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 she’s also not given 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, making some of the action in the third act a bit uneven. However, because Avery and Logan’s friendship is so well developed, the actors manage to achieve a level of sincerity in these more emotional scenes that still makes it all work.

Overall, Our Little Secret is an entertaining, mostly family-friendly Christmas screwball comedy that finds Lohan working in the comedic style she does best. If nothing else, it shows once again that if studios supported these types of mid-budget films for theatrical release, we might have movie stars again. Now The would be a Christmas miracle.