It shouldn’t come as a shock to learn that the top rated movie on Netflix at the moment is a holiday flick, but you might be pleasantly surprised to learn that the festive rom-com drawing the most eyeballs on the streamer right now, “Our Little Secret,” features Lindsay Lohan. The “Mean Girls” star has been making a bit of a comeback of late via Netflix movies like “Falling for Christmas” and “Irish Wish,” but she’s earning particularly enthusiastic notices from critics for her portrayal of Avery, whose visit to her potential in-laws for Christmas gets complicated when she discovers her significant other’s sister is dating her ex-boyfriend Logan (Ian Harding).
It’s a recipe for yuletide disaster, and director Stephen Herek (the kids hockey classic “The Mighty Ducks”) serves it up with all the hackneyed trimmings people seem to crave from holiday movies at this time of year. There’s nothing wrong with that, especially when it’s giving the resurgent Lohan (who also executive produced) the opportunity to remind us why we fell in love with her 26 years ago in “The Parent Trap.” (Some of us were unwitting fans via her Halloween appearance on “Late Night with David Letterman” over 30 years ago.)
There are loads of familiar faces in “Our Little Secret” (e.g. Tim Meadows, Chris Parnell, Henry Czerny, and Broadway legend Kristin Chenoweth), but you might find yourself reaching for where you’ve seen that likable Logan before. If you happened to be watching a lot of Freeform during the 2010s, there’s a reason he’s memorable.
Ian Harding was Ezra Fitz on Pretty Little Liars
If you watched “Pretty Little Liars” at any point during its seven-season run on Freeform (or have become a fan of the “Pretty Little Liars” franchise since then), you absolutely know Ian Harding as Ezra Fitz, the high school teacher who falls in love with his student Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale). That more-than-a-little problematic romance played out in unpredictable ways between 2010 and 2017, ending in a marriage between Ezra and the now-adult Aria. This being a soap opera of sorts, Ezra was portrayed as both a decent guy and a bit of a screw-up at times, challenging the audience’s sympathy for him. But Harding is such an ultimately winning presence that people could forgive him his numerous transgressions.
As such, he’s perfect casting as a clown who broke up with his true love when she got a too-good-to-pass-up job offer in London (how very John McClane of you, Ian). If you’re saying to yourself, “Hey, I didn’t watch ‘Pretty Little Liars,’ but I do recognize this guy,” perhaps you remember him from his brief turn in James Mangold’s “Ford v Ferrari” or his 11-episode run on “Chicago Med” in 2019. Or maybe he lives in your neighborhood. If none of these apply, I just don’t know what to tell you!
“Our Little Secret” is now streaming on Netflix.
