‘Little Secrets’ shares life lessons

A wholesome little drama aimed at the pre- and early teen crowd, “Little Secrets” is set in a frighteningly tidy suburbia of cul-de-sacs and clipped lawns, courteous neighbors, and kids, kids and more kids.

Emily (Evan Rachel Wood who also appears as Al Pacino’s daughter in “Simone”) is a gifted young violinist who also has a thriving enterprise going. Once a week she opens her “Secret Keeper” business to the neighborhood, where boys and girls with guilty consciences come to seek counsel. Half pip-squeak psychologist, half pip-squeak priest in her makeshift confessional box, Emily advises, forgives and commiserates. (Sample dilemmas: a boy who broke a parental unit’s trusted objet d’art; a towheaded tyke who sneaked a pet kitty into the house, even though there’s a sister allergic to cats.)

As it turns out, though, Emily has a burdensome secret of her own. It takes the whole movie and the arrival of a new family, with two teenage boys (Michael Angarano and David Gallagher) who are both smitten with her before she’s ready to divulge it to the world.

Directed by Blair Treu in a crisp, cute Disney Channel-esque fashion, “Little Secrets” has life lessons to impart and wastes no time doing so: drunken driving is bad, keeping things from people you love is bad, feeling jealous and angry over the arrival of an impending sibling is bad. Sometimes the script simply clicks into sermon mode, but the three principals Wood, Angarano and Gallagher are likable enough that they make it all seem sincere.

All’s well that ends well, as “Little Secrets” wraps everything up in a neat little bow.