![]() ![]() Take Riley’s grease-monkey husband, for instance it’s his potential involvement in a robbery that leads Garcia to their door, but after explicitly turning down the gig, exactly how and why does Garcia find out who he is to exact his retribution? Not to mention Riley’s entire journey from Devastated Mother to Expert Fighter, Shooter and Thief: that’s the movie to make, not one that focuses almost exclusively on the set-up of her vendetta, skips ahead five years and then haphazardly shuffles through some but not all of the people she blames for the crime and its irresolution. Everything - including the action sequences, flashbacks and even the twists - feels half-considered, like somebody thought they could make a dumb story smart, or was forced to do the opposite.Īlso Read: That 'Love, Simon' Crucial Mother-Son Coming-Out Scene Almost Didn't Happen ![]() It’s not clear why this choice was made, but then again, it’s not especially clear why any of the ones in the script by Chad St. The movie opens on the rooftop of a downtown Los Angeles parking deck where, through some clumsy misdirection, a brutal fight in a car between Riley and one of her family’s killers initially looks like a couple making love, complete with fogged-up windows. ![]() But when FBI agent Lisa Inman (Annie Ilonzeh, “Person of Interest”) shows up with incontrovertible evidence of her ongoing vendetta, Carmichael and Beltran race to apprehend her before she kills again, even as a possible mole in the police force working for Garcia threatens to undermine their investigation. Vanishing from her old life - from any activity that could identify her to authorities - Riley conspires to exact her own brand of justice, even as police detectives Stan Carmichael (John Gallagher Jr.) and Moises Beltran (John Ortiz) are reluctant to pin a series of brutal murders on a grieving housewife. Watch Video: Jennifer Garner Tries to Outdo 'American Pie' With Her Own 'One Time at Band Camp' Story Furious at the inactivity and indifference of a legal system unwilling to prosecute the men responsible, Riley targets not only the criminals but also the attorneys and judges whose delinquency enabled the killers to go free. Garner plays Riley North, a vigilante carving a path of destruction across southern California motivated by the deaths of her husband Chris (Jeff Hephner, NBC’s “Chicago Med”) and Carly (Cailey Fleming, Young Rey in “The Force Awakens”) five years earlier at the hands of drug lord Diego Garcia (Juan Pablo Raba, “Narcos”). But a script that seems to have been assembled by algorithm, plus routine direction by “Taken” helmer Pierre Morel, hobbles what might have been a moderately rousing (if in no way original) transformation story. The formidable Jennifer Garner has already shouldered her fair share of badass characters, so the toughness required of her character here is entirely believable. But “Peppermint” is in such a hurry to deliver the payoff of watching an aggrieved mother exact her revenge on the drug lord who killed her husband and daughter that it completely ignores the much bigger and more interesting story of exactly how she prepared for that showdown. Since 1974, there have been dozens of riffs on “Death Wish” featuring men driven to violent acts of vengeance (including a tepid remake earlier this year), so there’s no reason there shouldn’t be one about a woman. ![]()
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