Peppermint

Year: 2018
Director: Pierre Morel
Cast: Jennifer Garner, John Gallagher Jr, John Ortiz, Juan Pablo Raba


Plot: When corrupt judges and lawyers deny Riley North justice for her slain husband and daughter at the hands of a drug kingpin, she disappears for five years and returns to deliver payback to everyone involved.


Review: Peppermint joins the long list of revenge movies that have been made over the years, from Death Wish to Death Sentence, The Punisher, The Brave One, Kill Bill, Law Abiding Citizen and John Wick. But does it stand out?

Director Pierre Morel, whose only real hit in English so far is Taken, probably tried to avoid repetition when it comes to revenge stories. In this case, the protagonist Riley North has a long list of people to kill, which includes a corrupt judge and the lawyers on both sides who were all on drug kingpin Diego Garcia's payroll. But Morel chooses to skim over these characters' deaths quickly instead of allowing the audience the satisfaction of seeing their lives end. Even the three men who pulled the trigger on her family get the short treatment from Morel, who may have wanted to avoid showing Riley kill one scumbag after another as the story goes along. Even so, I felt some of these kills could have been elaborated a bit for the audience's benefit.

Morel instead focuses more time on the cops and the FBI hunting her down, and the media's attempt to paint Riley as a vigilante hero. All this is fine, but not enough time is spent on Riley's point of view of her actions i.e. whether she regrets anything she does. Even her time spent on training during those missing five years isn't shown.

Thankfully, Jennifer Garner is still game for action since Alias had ended years ago, and still manages to deliver a solid emotional performance as Riley. She certainly looks great as she mercilessly takes down every bad guy that steps in front of her. John Gallagher Jr and John Ortiz provide some support as the two cops tracking her down, while Juan Pablo Raba throws in a somewhat textbook but competent performance as Diego. Riley's final confrontation with Diego is sadly much too brief for my liking.

Despite that, Morel orchestrates a handful of good action sequences which involve Riley engaging in shootouts with Diego's men. This, and Garner's strong acting just manage to make Peppermint entertaining enough.

Overall, Peppermint is a decent revenge tale, which could have been great if Morel gave us more of Riley and more details on her path of vengeance. (6/10)