Following 2004's unfocused She Hate Me, which tried to mesh corporate and political malfeasance with sexual and racial identity, Spike Lee gets back on track with a big-budget New York heist flick. Inside Man offers an intriguing yarn that explores power and ethnicity with snappy humor.

It's a thriller worthy of Penn & Teller and the sleight-of-hand isn't all on the part of the criminal mastermind, played by Clive Owen, who orchestrates a complicated bank robbery in downtown Manhattan. Lee provides his own misdirection that cleverly feeds into the movie's theme: the battle between cynicism and idealism raging within all of us.

No filmmaker revels more in the ethnic tapestry that is New York City. He does so with eyes open, celebrating the diversity by taking shots at every constituency. Here the melting-pot metropolis is used as a backdrop for depicting a struggle that transcends geography and race. Tension between multi-ethnic citizens appears to be a sideshow, a smokescreen for the plot. Yet what looks like a diversion, and one of Lee's personal preoccupations, turns out to enforce the overall theme. 

Besting your opponent in any endeavor has its secondary pleasures but boils down to one thing:  getting yours without losing self-respect. Since there's plenty to go around, the goal isn't to deprive others, just get a slice for yourself. This pertains to every relationship on screen; each character is intent on getting paid or at minimum avoiding doing something for nothing. For example an Albanian woman wants her sheath of parking tickets to disappear in exchange for translating a tape cops make of the criminals.

Denzel Washington portrays NYPD Det. Keith Frazier who must negotiate with the hostage-taking robbers. The perps keep him off balance by putting everyone in identical jumpsuits and masks and by making puzzlingly outlandish demands. Meanwhile the bank chairman, an esteemed establishment figure (Christopher Plummer), hires a high-priced fixer (Jodie Foster) to protect his interests. Her brief is to ensure the contents of his safe deposit box don't become public, though we don't know if this is what the thieves are after. She has the ear of the mayor and together they pay Frazier a visit during the stand-off. Later she gets a face-to-face with the ringleader.

Minor characters such as a Sikh bank employee who complains about cops forcing him to take off his turban, aggressively defend their rights and gladly give the authorities lip. We also see this during interviews with the hostages that are spliced into the main action and which take place after the crisis is resolved. These largely improvised sequences are as hilarious as they are unhelpful in solving the crime.  

The nimble Lee, with a big assist from screenwriter Russell Gewirtz, has it both ways by piercing idealism while upholding it. This entertaining trick requires the moral sophistication evident in his moody and underrated 25th Hour and is reminiscent of two classic New York crime films from the 1970s -- Dog Day Afternoon, referred to by Frazier, and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. For a director who prefers studying people, he presents the action fairly well, yet it's clear he's mostly interested in the personalities. The obliging script gives him two flawed heroes in Frazier and Owen's coolly philosophical criminal.

Frazier is under a cloud because some funds have gone missing after a drug bust. He doesn't hide his desire to give his girlfriend, also a cop, the material things she wants, or to being promoted to Detective First Grade and getting a paycheck that would make that more likely. Washington delivers his best performance since Training Day and it sneaks up on you; three-quarters of the way through your realize how fantastic he is. Owen transmits the necessary cunning idealism though it's not a stretch. 

Foster has the toughest assignment playing the sketchiest character, a coiffed keeper of secrets. But just as the crime appears to be an elaborate ruse, so is Inside Man. When someone's motives are unclear and it's hard to know what conclusions to draw or how to react, start by assuming they're after their own slice of the pie.

(Released by Universal Pictures and rated "R" for language and some violent images.)