The Pianist (2002)

I had hoped for more emphasis on the music throughout this movie, but the parts where the music did come through were absolutely brilliant. The scene where he sits at the piano and imagines playing nearly brought me to tears. Adrien Brody is excellent in his transformation from the cultured, classy musician to a desperate man hiding in attics to save his life. Although the movie runs a little long and becomes a bit typical as far as war stories go in the middle, bits of this are fantastic. So it gets a medium-high ranking. 3.5 stars.