Peppermint : Guns and punches try to make up for what the story lacks
Peppermint: **1/2
US | Action | Drama | Vigilante
Cast:Jennifer Garner; John Ortiz; John Gallagher Jr.; Juan Pablo Raba; Tyson Ritter
Duration: 102 minutes
Released: September 2018
Plot: (Google)
Riley North awakens from a coma after surviving a brutal attack that killed her husband and daughter. When the system shields the murderers from justice, Riley sets out to transform herself from citizen to urban guerrilla. Channeling frustration into motivation, the young widow spends years in hiding -- honing her mind, body and spirit to become an unstoppable force. Eluding the underworld, the police and the FBI, Riley embarks on a deadly quest to deliver her own personal brand of punishment.
Review:
Peppermint is a revenge film about a women avenging the wrongful deaths of her husband and daughter. The film stays true to its action genre and does not falter even for the stake of its story. Directed by Pierre Morel who also directed films like, Love from Paris, Taken knows what he is doing in the genre. The film starts with Jennifer Garner as Riley North, fighting a guy in a parked car. She says, "You don't remember me do you?," and when he confirms it she pulls the trigger below her chin. The film goes back five years ago to fill in the audience with the story. Riley North, mother of Carly is getting ready to celebrate her daughter's birthday while her husband is thinking over a robbery deal to help their financial condition. Their happy family keeps his faith intact and he refuses the deal but a little too late. As they celebrate Carly's birthday at the local Christmas carnival, they are gunned down by the mafia who had gotten the whiff of robbery.
Riley North is just a mother trying to get justice by the legal methods until the judges decide to send her to a physiatric ward for a emotional outbreak in the court when the killers are let out free of charge. Years later a trained Riley comes back only to take on the entire gang responsible for her family death on the day of her family's death anniversary. Watching Jennifer Garner kill guys cold hearted is like watching a video game feed. The only time she ever stops is at the sight of children around reminding her of Carly. It is hard to see Jennifer play such a two dimensional character when you know there is so much more she is capable of and seen her do it in the flashback scenes. Even though Michael Mosley shows up only for 5 minutes in the film his acting makes a lasting impact. His interaction with Riley is the best scene of the film. The second half of the story falls into the patterns of the basic action, revenge kinda movies. On the same day she hunts them down and kills them all while heavily injured. She then returns to her daughter's grave and decides to end her life there, but is dragged to the hospital. Director Pierre uses the oldest trick ever in vigilante movies to keep Riley's story go on.
There is part in the film where the FBI agent finds out the area Riley has been hiding out at becomes a crime free area and she has been deemed as the angle of the area by the homeless people there. Which would have been a way more interesting story than the overly done revenge plot.
Verdict: The movie has so much more it could have given us but we are left with a hollow Vigilante film.
**1/2 stars
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