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. 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.
The formidable Jennifer Garner has already shouldered her fair share of badass characters, so the toughness required of her character here is entirely believable.