SWEET REVENGE
Garner is unstoppable as vigilante on a mission in ‘Peppermint’
Riley North, the heroine in “Peppermint,” is nothing short of harrowing — a scarily effective one-woman killing machine.
Jennifer Garner gives Riley a matter-of-fact fury. She's not asking for sympathy or even understanding.
“I want justice,” she will say repeatedly in this sleek, formulaic action picture directed with brutal efficiency and occasional wit by Pierre Morel, who knows this territory intimately having made “Taken” an international hit a decade ago.
The set-up is elemental: Struggling family of three — Riley, handsome, well-intentioned husband Chris (Jeff
Hephner) and smart daughter Carly (Cailey Fleming) — are celebrating the beloved tot's birthday at an amusement park when a drive-by shooting terminates any future happiness for sole survivor Riley.
Far worse is the preliminary hearing where Riley's testimony is ignored, thanks to collusion between drug lord Diego Garcia (Juan Pablo Raba), the attorney and the judge. The three (heavily tattooed) killer scum walk free.
Proving things can still get worse: The judge orders a livid, distraught Riley locked up in an asylum.
Naturally, she escapes and five years later, her revenge killing spree begins.
At this point, her many victims are wholly predictable and speculation is limited to two topics. First, since Riley never wears a mask or disguises herself, is she looking in her violent vigilante mode to die, as in a “suicide by cops”?
Second, who is the slimy informant in the police department who is letting snarling Diego Garcia know all?
Those issues never distract from the real point of “Peppermint,” which is killing. As Riley becomes a local TV celebrity and social media trends “Is she hero or criminal?” the body count climbs.
Garner, since the collapse of her marriage to Cambridge actor Ben Affleck, has become a best-selling tabloid headliner (much like Riley), a secular saint suffering through the end of a highly public union, caring for their children.
Her movie roles, going back to the Oscar-winning AIDS drama “Dallas Buyers Club,” have been similarly stuck in a groove of various supportive, brave women.
So “Peppermint” — the title refers to the ice cream flavor Carly orders just before she dies — is a welcome showcase for an earlier Garner — the kick-butt heroine she played weekly in “Alias.”
She's frighteningly convincing in a film that oozes soggy sentiment alongside the guts, gore and assault rifles.