[yasr_overall_rating]
“Peppermint” is a revenge story centering on a young mother who finds herself with nothing to lose, and is now going to take from her enemies the very life they stole from her.
This film really delivers when it comes to action but the storyline is weak and not in the least bit believable. Jennifer Garner plays Riley North, a working mom who sets out to get revenge five years after the murder of her husband and young daughter.
Riley, an ordinary working mom, watches her husband and daughter get shot on the way home from a holiday carnival. We find out later that her husband was involved with a drug cartel. When he turns down an offer to do a robbery, they set out to kill him. They catch them leaving the carnival and shoot him and hit the daughter in the process.
The shooters are caught and taken into custody where Riley identifies them. The judge concludes that because Riley was under the influence of medication at the time, she couldn’t have possibly identified them correctly and they are set free. Apparently, Riley goes into hiding for five years. When she returns, she is not the same suburban wife we saw at the beginning of the film. Her character is now bold, fearless, and all of a sudden, this expert street fighter who is a cold-blooded killer/vigilante who protects homeless people from the streets, where she now lives by the way.
There is a lot missing from the story that could have made it better. There are questions that need answers, such as, why and when exactly her husband got involved with a drug cartel; and just saying he needed money is not good enough for us to believe he would risk his family’s life. Also, what was her life like off the grid and how did she learn to fight and use these military-style weapons? I feel the movie was more about taking down the drug cartel than her actual revenge. It would have been amazing if they spent more time on the actual story than the fight scenes but overall, not bad but not a must see.
In theaters Friday, September 7th
