Movie review: Jennifer Garner is out for revenge in ‘Peppermint’

Riley North saw her husband Chris and daughter Carly gunned down in cold blood. She was able to identify the three killers in the police line-up, but the case was still dismissed because of “insufficient evidence.”

Five years later, Los Angeles was the scene of a series of bizarre murders. All the victims all had one thing in common — they are connected directly to the terrible miscarriage of justice against Riley North and her family.

Okay, yes, it is another revenge movie. It has been a very familiar plot in action films to have a typically mild-mannered person who suffered a major crime rise up to maim and kill everyone responsible for his tragic circumstances. We see a lot of male protagonists in this type of film: from “Death Wish” (1974) to “The Punisher” (2004), from “Mad Max” (1980) to “Payback” (1999), from “Taken” (2009) to “John Wick” (2014).

A female protagonist in a revenge film may not be that common, but they count among the best in the genre. Among the most memorable ones would be “Carrie” (1976) with Sissy Spacek, “Kill Bill” (2003) with Uma Thurman, “The Brave One” (2007) with Jodie Foster, and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (2011) with Rooney Mara. A new lady vigilante joins their ranks with this new film, “Peppermint”.

The main reason to watch this film is lead actress Jennifer Garner who played Riley North. Garner burst into mainstream fame and critical acclaim playing the role of Sidney Bristow in the classic action TV series “Alias” which ran for five seasons from 2001 to 2006. This led to superhero films “Daredevil” (2003) and “Elektra” (2005). However, since then, she stayed away from action films, starring mainly in unremarkable romances and dramas, until now.

At 46, Garner is much older now, but she can still kick ass like she used to do, although the there were more shadows, more closeups, and more quick cuts this time around. True to the formula, the means by which she killed the bad people who victimized her and her family had to be ultra violent and explosive. Within five years, this simple banker / housewife gained unmatched survival skills to make her invincible and unbeatable going against an entire drug gang and the LAPD. Fans wanted it that way, and we got it.

From the very first scene we already see her killing someone, before the flashback to five years ago followed. It was a strange choice for director Pierre Morel (who also directed “Taken” nine years ago) to have kept the precise way she cornered and killed the three primary gunmen off the screen. We only saw them hanging from the ferris wheel of the carnival where the murders happened. There would have been more gratification to see exactly HOW she did this all on her own.

Aside from the seemingly trivial mention of “peppermint” as the flavor of ice cream Carly chose before she was gunned down, it was quite a mystery for me why the entire movie was titled this way. Anyhow, we may find out some time in the future, as the possibility for a sequel was left open at the end. 6/10

This review was originally published in the author’s blog, “Fred Said.”