The Cog

Modest and good-looking, the film starts as dark comedy and ends in pathos. Director Alvarez makes the Oregon scenery a character unto itself.

People who approach it as a film in its own right, with its own rhythms and goals and pleasures, will be amply rewarded.

Despite smatterings of wit and a stable of skilled performers, "C.O.G." struggles to find a consistent tone, its episodic structure veering from farcical to poignant to dangerously raw.

In Kyle Patrick Alvarez's funny adaptation of David Sedaris' essay, out actor Jonathan Groff channels a prideful sissy-boy on the verge of hilarious pratfalls...