The entirety of Woody Allen’s new film “Cassandra’s Dream” is spent in dire anticipation of the fate that will befall his two main characters. The relentless monotony of the film’s inevitable conclusion leaves the audience to hope that the film’s one relief — the final credits — will come sooner than it seems.

After a career resurgence brought on by 2005’s London-based thriller “Match Point,” critics and fans may have believed that the New York filmmaker just needed a change of scenery to rejuvenate his work. But with both “Scoop” (2006) and now “Cassandra’s Dream,” Mr. Allen has fallen back into producing disappointing films. His own description of his success with “Match Point” explains the situation well. “You know, I try to make them all good, but some come out and some don’t,” he recently told Australia’s the Age. “With this one everything seemed to come out right. The actors fell in, the photography fell in, and the story clicked. I caught a lot of breaks.”

With “Cassandra’s Dream,” the opposite seems to have happened. Despite an all-star cast and high production values, the film is overburdened by the same routine of wearisome class warfare and flailing plotlines that have characterized his handful of box office failures, from “Small Time Crooks” to “Melinda and Melinda.”

Whereas casting Scarlett Johansson against type doomed “Scoop,” a long string of wasted opportunities contributes to the downfall of “Cassandra’s Dream.” A cast featuring Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell, a score by Philip Glass, and a lush British setting are all wasted, often veering the film toward slapstick when it aims for drama. Ian (Mr. McGregor) is a social-climbing dilettante who feels his intellect entitles him to more than simply running his father’s restaurant. His brother Terry (Mr. Farrell) is a slow but sweet mechanic with a gambling problem. When their rich Uncle Howard (Tom Wilkinson) arrives in town and tells the brothers that he will reward them handsomely for ridding him of a nuisance, they must contemplate whether reaching their dreams and avoiding their failures is worth taking a man’s life. Terry is repulsed by the thought but trapped by his debts. Ian is less conflicted. He wants some money for a poorly researched real estate venture in Los Angeles, where the life he imagines with his new actress girlfriend Angela (Hayley Atwell) ostensibly awaits.

From the beginning, when the two buy a boat they can’t really afford with some of Terry’s winnings and name it Cassandra’s Dream, the disastrous end of the film is a foregone conclusion. But Mr. Glass’s soundtrack spells out doom for the characters and their plans far more quickly than the script dictates. The score overemphasizes the inevitable failure of their schemes, leaving little room for character development, levity, or plot arc. Unlike “Match Point,” in which moments of pleasure and empathy for the characters temper the unfolding drama, “Cassandra’s Dream” plods heavily to its inevitable conclusion.

Mr. Allen’s script is thinly written, and the characters rarely step beyond the bounds of shallow social, racial, and religious stereotypes. Mr. Farrell, cast as a moral man trapped in a difficult situation, manages to wring some emotion out of his character, though he often relies too heavily on his easily furrowed brow. But Mr. McGregor, cast as a man willing to kill simply to achieve the means to support a fickle woman who cares little for him, never scratches the surface of his shallow character. Their parents, poor and in ill health, bicker endlessly about money and Howard’s generosity in their lives. Howard, a plastic surgeon who occasionally serves as benefactor to his blue-collar sister, has achieved a level of wealth that makes asking his nephews to kill someone a minor post-lunch bother.

The title of the film originates from the name of a dog that starts Terry’s gambling winning streak — and inevitable decline. The name also none too subtly refers to the Greek mythological figure who was cursed with the gift of prophecy that no one would believe. In “Cassandra’s Dream,” Mr. Allen seems to be cursing his fans, who walk into the theater expecting to be disappointed, but still hope they’ll be pleasantly surprised.

mkeane@nysun.com