Movies In Theaters This Friday, September 16, 2011: DRIVE, STRAW DOGS, and more

Wondering what movies are coming out to theaters this Friday, September 16, 2011? Let me give you one word: DRIVE! This is your must-see movie this weekend, it’s fantastic.

But if you are really intent on not listening to me, then you can also pick from I Don’t Know How She Does It and Straw Dogs, which are both being released as well. And there is also a few additional movies to pick from in limited release. So take a look at the list below to make your pick and have a great weekend!

Drive

Synopsis: Ryan Gosling stars as a Los Angeles wheelman for hire, stunt driving for movie productions by day and steering getaway vehicles for criminal operations by night. A loner by nature, Driver can’t help falling in love with his beautiful but vulnerable neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan), a young mother dragged into a dangerous criminal underworld by the return of ex-convict husband Standard (Oscar Isaac).

After a heist operation, intended to help Standard pay off protection money, spins out of control, Driver finds himself driving defense for the girl he loves, tailgated by a syndicate of deadly serious criminals (Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman). When the gangsters reveal that they’re after more than the bag of money in his trunk—that they’re coming straight for Irene and her son—Driver is forced to shift gears and go on the offense.

I Don’t Know How She Does It

Synopsis: Sarah Jessica Parker, Greg Kinnear, Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Munn and Christina Hendricks star in I Don’t Know How She Does It, a comedy from director Douglas McGrath (Emma, Infamous) and producer Donna Gigliotti (The Reader, Let Me In). Based on the critically acclaimed bestseller by Allison Pearson, I Don’t Know How She Does It follows a Boston-based working mother trying desperately to juggle marriage, children, and a high-stress job.
Kate Reddy (Parker) devotes her days to her job with a Boston-based financial management firm. At night she goes home to her adoring, recently-downsized architect husband Richard (Kinnear) and their two young children. It’s a non-stop balancing act, the same one that Kate’s acerbic best friend and fellow working mother Allison (Christina Hendricks) performs on a daily basis, and that Kate’s super-brainy, child-phobic young junior associate Momo (Olivia Munn) fully intends to avoid. When Kate gets handed a major new account that will require frequent trips to New York, Richard also wins the new job he’s been hoping for and both will be spreading themselves even thinner. Complicating matters is Kate’s charming new business associate Jack Abelhammer (Brosnan), who begins to prove an unexpected source of temptation.

Straw Dogs

Synopsis: David and Amy Sumner (James Marsden and Kate Bosworth), a Hollywood screenwriter and his actress wife, return to her small hometown in the deep South to prepare the family home for sale after her father’s death. Once there, tensions build in their marriage and old conflicts re-emerge with the locals, including Amy’s ex-boyfriend Charlie (Alexander Skarsgård), leading to a violent confrontation.

Happy, Happy

Synopsis: Family is the most important thing in the world to Kaja. She is an eternal optimist in spite of living with a man who would rather go hunting with the boys and isn’t interested in having sex with her anymore because she “isn’t particularly attractive.” Whatever. That’s l ife. But when “the perfect couple” moves in next door, Kaja struggles to keep her emotions in check. Not only do these successful, beautiful, exciting people sing in a choir, they have also adopted a child – from Ethiopia! These new neighbors open a whole new world to Kaja, with consequences for everyone involved. And when Christmas comes around, it becomes evident that nothing will ever be like before – even if Kaja tries her very best.

Restless

Synopsis: Annabel Cotton (MIA WASIKOWSKA) is a beautiful and charming terminal cancer patient with a deep felt love of life and the natural world. Enoch Brae (HENRY HOPPER) is a young man who has dropped out of the business of living, after an accident claimed the life of his parents. When these two outsiders chance to meet at a funeral, they find an unexpected common ground in their unique experiences of the world. For Enoch, it includes his best friend Hiroshi (RYŌ KASE) who happens to be the ghost of a Kamikaze fighter pilot. For Annabel, it involves an admiration of Charles Darwin and an interest in how other creatures live. Upon learning of Annabel’s imminent early passing, Enoch offers to help her face her last days with an irreverent abandon, tempting fate, tradition and even death itself.
As their unique love for each other grows, so do the realities of the world that they have felt closing in on them. Daring, childlike, and distinctly rare – these two bravely face what life has in store for them. Fighting pain, anger and loss with youth, playfulness and originality, these two misfits turn the tables on life and play by their own rules. Their journey begins to collide with the unstoppable march of time, as the natural cycle of life comes to claim Annabel.

3

Synopsis: A Berlin-set drama centered on a 40-something couple who, separately, fall in love with the same man.