Movie review: 'That's What She Said'

Not even a fully committed performance by Anne Heche as socially repellant boozer Dee Dee buoys “That's What She Said,” a grim and grimy gross-out comedy about three women dealing with romantic disaster on a completely unproductive slog through Manhattan.

Marcia DeBonis, Anne Heche and Alia Shawkat star in “That’s What She Said.” PHOTO PROVIDED

The trio is asked to leave almost every place they visit, and most viewers will side with all those frustrated coffee shop managers and police officers.

Heche's Dee Dee is an enthusiastic mess who smokes while she brushes her teeth and washes down prescription pills with scotch. She has her reasons, but Dee Dee is precious little help to her unpleasant best friend BeBe (Marcia DeBonis), who is preparing for a big date and but has zero confidence in its outcome.

When Dee Dee meets BeBe at their favorite coffee shop, she finds BeBe comforting Clementine (Alia Shawkat of “Arrested Development”), a young woman in the midst of a terrible breakup. But while Dee Dee and BeBe's anti-social tendencies usually involve shouting while on a bender, Clementine's bad behavior is a different and decidedly sexual lack of restraint.

Together, the trio engages in a full day of chaotic drunkenness and run-ins with authority, which can be appealing in the right hands, but these three characters can barely muster a collective three dimensions among them.

“That's What She Said” is a series of shrill, ugly exchanges distinguishable mainly by periodic changes in location.

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