Fiendishly bizarre, this comedy casts the very adult comic actor Martin Short in the role of a ten-year-old mischief-maker, with regrettably uneven results. Short's sly genius on the television programs SCTV and Saturday Night Live is well known, with the comic creating one subversive character after another. Sadly, the funnyman's skill hasn't yet translated into big screen success, as his humor seems best suited to the small doses of the sketch format. Padded out to a feature-length running time, the star's shtick becomes waterlogged with plot-required business, sapping his brand of devilish energy. Proving once again that he's best in the role of straight man, Charles Grodin delivers his patented sleepwalking posture, confused stammer, and slowly simmering rage to the part of a tormented uncle driven to distraction by his trouble-making nephew -- but he's all reaction. Short is what he's reacting to, but the demands of his screenplay require the performer to be by turns naughty, cute, prurient, and suspiciously adult. Unsure how to play it, the actor leaves an audience unsure how to take it. Clifford (1994) is a good idea for a movie in search of a suitable script.
