What would you do if you were presented with the option of confronting the man who killed your only son? Charles Oliver’s new feature Take explores just this idea, the concept of restorative justice. “What it does is pretty miraculous,” the director tells CGG. “It sounds like the last thing you would want to do. But a lot of prisoners don’t connect with the person they have affected. By allowing them to meet face-to-face can have a tremendous affect on the prisoner and can add dimension to his crime and how it affected their victim.”

Real mother-to-be (and Oxfam ambassador) Minnie Driver gives a breathtaking performance as Ana, a mother who loses her son when an attempted robbery goes horribly wrong. Jeremy Renner plays Saul, the apologetic killer who struggles with the poor decisions he’s made in life. We couldn’t help but want to see more of Jeremy after his performance in Take. This is one multi-layered actor who needs more roles in Hollywood.

But our favorite was funnyman David Denman who you may recognize as Roy from the Office, taking on a more serious role as the father. Shot on a super low budget, Take is visually flawless. With its silver slick imagery and twisting plot, you can’t help but be sucked in to the story.

Restorative justice is a concept that is becoming increasingly important in the penal system as it aims to create a dialogue toward healing. “Believe me, this movie brings up every, certainly every mother’s worst nightmare,” Minnie tells CGG. “You know you stand your morally high ground until your kid is taken from you and something terrible happens to them. And then surely wouldn’t you just want to rip that person limb from limb?”

Minnie was on NPR with a woman who watched her daughter be killed in front of her. This woman is at the forefront of the restorative justice movement.

“And it’s not like you meet your attacker the next day, it’s years and years and years later and you go through masses of psychological processes before they go ok the perpetrator and this person can meet,” Minnie tells CGG. “And if this woman could talk about the healing that took place, that has somehow brought her from a place of complete and utter devastation and grief and rage, to a place of power again, and of feeling like a human being again. And whilst you’re never going to get over the loss of your child, you somehow can function on this planet. Anything that’s got restorative in it I’m for.”

Charles Oliver ends his film encouraging the audience to visit a website to learn more about restorative justice.

“One of the things I want younger people to realize is that revenge is not sweet despite the message we are constantly fed by commercialism,” Charles tells CGG. “It is messy, painful, slow and eroding.”