ReelBob: ‘Peppermint’ ★½
By Bob Bloom
The revenge motif is as old as man’s first ventures into performing. A staple of theater in ancient Greece, vengeance can be found in most every movie genre from adventure films to Westerns.
Now comes “Peppermint,” with Jennifer Garner as Riley North, a wife and mother whose life has been shattered after her husband and daughter are gunned down by the henchmen of a Los Angeles drug lord.
“Peppermint” is a thoroughly unpleasant movie, shallow and simplistic with one-dimensional, stereotypical characters and a lazy, very predictable plot.
“Peppermint” is cut from the same cloth as “Death Wish,” the 1974 version, starring Charles Bronson and directed by Michael Winner.
That movie had a moral fiber missing from “Peppermint.” Bronson’s Paul Kersey was a conscientious objector who disliked guns, even though he was proficient in their use.
What drove him to vigilantism was not only the murder of his wife and the sexual assault and brutal beating of his adult daughter, but that the police were so overwhelmed with crime in New York that they could not adequately solve the Kersey case.
Plus, Kersey saw how fellow New Yorkers were uneasy about walking the city’s streets and riding its subways.
“Peppermint” has none of that. What propels Garner’s character is a corrupt judicial system that fails to give her satisfaction.
The movie opens with North killing a man. We don’t know why, until the flashback to five years earlier when her family was gunned down.
North, who also was wounded and hospitalized, disappears after the case against the three men she identified as the shooters was dismissed because of judicial chicanery.
She resurfaces five years later as an avenging angel, living among the homeless denizens of Los Angeles’ Skid Row. Her home is a van stocked with enough firepower to supply a platoon. She keeps the van unlocked, yet, no one in the neighborhood touches it or takes anything from it.
After the bodies of three men are found hanging from a Ferris wheel at the amusement park where her family was killed, North returns to police radar.
Surprise! They are the three suspects from five years earlier. Others associated with the case also die violently.
“Peppermint” is a very brutal and violent movie. Heads are blown away, and the bodies begin littering the streets.
Plus, the movie is not very kind to Hispanics. All the bad guys work for a stereotypical Hispanic drug lord who is sadistic and cruel. His minions are mindless gunmen who ask how high when he tells them to jump.
Complexity of character is as scarce as a vegan at an Arby’s.
“Peppermint” takes all the cinematic shortcuts at its disposal in people and plot.
The movie offers neither twists nor surprises.
Garner, who cut her teeth on the television show “Alias” and in the early superheroes movies “Daredevil” and “Elektra,” knows how to shoot a gun and acquit herself in hand-to-hand combat.
It would have benefited the movie mightily if writer Chad St. John and director Pierre Morel had added some texture and depth to Garner’s Riley North.
For example, since she had suffered a head wound, it might have been beneficial to keep the audience guessing as to whether she was actually killing people or if the actions were hallucinations.
Instead, she is simply a killing machine whose actions, while sympathetic to some, simply reduce her to the same predatory level of those she is stalking.
“Peppermint” is one of those movies that has an open-ended finale. It would be best if the door was shut and barred. And as much as I understand her anger and angst, I don’t relish spending any more time with Riley North.
I am a member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My reviews appear at ReelBob (reelbob.com) and Rottentomatoes (www.rottentomatoes.com). I also review Blu-rays and DVDs. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com or on Twitter @ReelBobBloom. Links to my reviews can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.
PEPPERMINT
1½ stars out of 4
(R), graphic and bloody violence and images, language