I feel it is a rite of passage for every actor to eventually get their revenge movie. Truthfully, these action-heavy revenge flicks often bring actors out of slumps. After a string of bland roles and worse movies (see also Nine Lives), Jennifer Garner gets her no-apologies violent grindhouse movie.
Garner plays Riley North, a passive wife and mother that does anything she can to keep her family happy. Though, tragedy strikes and the justice system does little to find justice for her. Riley then goes off the grid, seemingly trains with Ra’s Al Ghul, and returns to the city years later with revenge on the mind.
If you’ve seen the trailer, this experience is exactly what you’d expect. It follows the formula of the genre to a T, which is great comfort food, but also entirely predictable. This is Death Wish, but with a tough-as-nails Jennifer Garner.
It’s great seeing Garner in this kind of role again. Alias feels like forever ago and it’s refreshing to see a darker side. Honestly, I got the vibe of Linda Hamilton’s turn in Terminator 2. The rest of the cast is composed of lesser-known character actors and they all seem to know how little effort is required for their roles.
Director Pierre Morel (Taken) knows his lane and he is more than happy to stay in it. Also, he knows the audience he’s making this for as well. He presents an all too familiar picture of a suburban happy life disrupted by insurmountable outside forces, until justice motivates the character to take out the trash. It explores the reheated facets of whether vigilantes are heroes or threats to the law. It really is note-for-note what we’ve seen two dozen times before, but you still watch with shock as the violence unfolds just to see the character get closure.
While Peppermint may disappear into the genre, it’s fun to see Jennifer Garner kick so much butt again. While there may not ever be a sequel, I wish I could see the character of Riley North in a better movie, with a better supporting cast. Rent this one on a violent movie night. C
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