JAPANESE STORY

1/2 (one and one half stars)

The point gets lost in translation.Running time: 105 minutes. Rated R (some sexuality and language.) At the Angelika, corner Houston and Mercer streets.’BEDTIME Story” seems a more appropriate name for the snoozy and unconvincing Australian drama “Japanese Story,” based on a script as barren as its back-of-beyond setting.

In fact, the backdrop – the starkly beautiful expanse of Western Australia’s Pilbara desert region – is infinitely more interesting to watch than the string of rote culture-clash clichés that dot Alison Tilson’s underdeveloped screenplay.

Toni Collette (“The Sixth Sense,” “About a Boy”) turns in a typically powerhouse performance as Sandy Edwards, a brash, surly geologist and partner in a Perth software company whose ill-defined unhappiness is intensified when she is forced to play tour guide/baby sitter to a visiting Japanese businessman.

Hiromitsu (Gotaro Tsunashima) is arrogant and chauvinistic, but when he insists on visiting some far-flung mines and traveling beyond into the remote and inhospitable desert, Sandy consents to his whims, apparently because she hopes to sell him some software.

The mildly annoying odd couple suffer each other’s presence until their truck breaks down and they spend a night in the desert staring down the prospect of perishing out there together.

This event softens them up emotionally and, their carefully established personalities turning on a dime, they bond over some mispronunciation. Before you can say “desert not dessert,” they’ve fallen into each other’s arms, cheerfully ignoring the fact that Hiromitsu has a wife and child back in Kyoto.

Perhaps to relieve the monotony of the uninspired plotting and lethargic direction, helmer Sue Brooks suddenly tosses in a curve ball, but the unforeseen tragic event merely leads to a prolonged third-act dirge.