Review: Andy Summers’ ‘Losing You’ gets lost in bitterness

Resentment runs rife in “Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving the Police,” a decidedly dour documentary based on a memoir by band guitarist Andy Summers.

Chronicling the rise and demise of what is undeniably the most successful band to emerge out of the post-punk scene, the film dutifully intersperses footage surrounding the outfit’s 2007 reunion tour with Summers’ pre-Police personal history, originally chronicled in his lively 2007 book, “One Train Later.”

While the latter aspect, accentuated with the guitarist’s evocative black and white photographs, reveals early career connections to the likes of the Animals, Jimi Hendrix and John Belushi, the more recent concert and backstage material, assembled by director Andy Grieve, lacks the energy and immediacy key to dynamic performance films.

More problematic is an overall tone established by Summers’ own matter-of-factly flat, wall-to-wall narration, coupled with a very evident bitterness that taints many of his potentially amusing Police-related anecdotes.

Arriving in North American theaters several years after completion, Summers’ big-screen take on those ongoing group tensions surrounding Sting’s reluctance to be considered a career team player constantly strikes a by now all-too-familiar, predominantly sour, chord.

Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving the Police.”

No MPAA rating. Running time: 1 hour, 23 minutes.

Playing: At Laemmle’s Royal, Santa Monica; Laemmle’s Playhouse 7, Pasadena; Laemmle’s NoHo 7, North Hollywood; AMC Rolling Hills 20, Torrance.