Movie Review: #PeppermintMovie

Peppermint
Director: Pierre Morel
Writers: Chad St. John
Starring:  Jennifer Garner, John Gallagher Jr., John Ortiz
MPAA Rating: R
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Hashtag  #PeppermintMovie

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.

When I first thought the trailer for this movie, I got very excited to see Jennifer Garner as a badass once more. I got so hyped up because I love seeing a woman take no crap and standing up for what she believes, quite the opposite of how Hollywood represented us just a few decades ago. We were always the helpless, scared, never knew what to do, screaming, fainting idiots men needed to save. Being brought up differently (my father would tell me to never put up with any man's crap...well, he used another word but I can't say it here ;P), I am loving this trend, no, realization of Hollywood movie makers that we women in fact can do everything a man can do, and we don't need any saving.

This movie, as I am sure you've seen in the trailer (and if you haven't, I have provided the link below), you see Riley North (Jennifer Garner) loses her family in shooting ordered by some Latin drug lord. As anyone else who survives the horrific event would, she tries to find justice by identifying the murderers and going to trial to testify. What she didn't expect was to find out just how corrupt the so called "justice system" really is. Well, not the system, but some of the people in it. When she realizes this, she doesn't know who to trust, so she just takes matters into her own hands.

Not going to lie, the movie IS good and I really, really enjoyed it, but the plot is a little predictable and done. I just liked the execution of it. One thing I loved the most about the movie is the way everything was delivered. The movie starts with you seeing Riley (Jennifer Garner) with her daughter and talking to another mom with her daughter. Immediately you get a sense of the type of person each one is, next scene you meet her husband, Chris (Jeff Hephner), and then we get straight to the point. Everything that happens is straight to the point, but you aren't left with any questions or wondering how one thing happened or why someone did what. It's all understood and well done.

There is, however, one down thing to the plot of the movie: there's supposed to be a twist in the end of the movie, but it's a little bit too done and you can see it from a few miles away. But it's not anything that ruins the movie or anything. It's just something that could've been done without. That's as much as I can say without spoiling it.

As for Jennifer Garner. Oh. My. God! I loved her in this movie. Honestly, she barely speaks in the movie, and yet, you don't need her to talk much. Her performance was outstanding, every emotion Riley felt was very well portrayed, and you get to really feel and understand her. Honestly, believe it or not, in her shoes, I probably would've done the same or something similar (I'm not sure I can kill people). She had a very "The Punisher" quality to her and it reminded me a lot of the Netflix show I love. Even from when I saw the trailer I thought that.

In conclusion: go see the movie. It's well done, and nothing is better than a woman kicking every man she encounter's behind. She really did all of us women justice in that movie. Goes to show what happens when you mess with us. What's that old saying? "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorn'd".