Regina King stands out in uneven biopic about political trailblazer Shirley Chisholm

When her staff lobby Shirley to attend the Black Liberal Convention in Gary, Indiana, Chisholm resists because women weren't invited to speak at the event. She tells her protégé and future congresswoman and Senate candidate Barbara Lee (Christina Jackson): Men are "always plotting and planning."

Most of the drama's principal characters were actual people. But Ridley introduces fictitious political operative Stanley Townsend (Brian Stokes Mitchell) to become Shirley's chief male foil as her campaign manager. Frustrated by Chisholm's unwillingness to heed his clear-minded advice, when he quits, Townsend reflects mainstream attitudes when he says: "This isn't a campaign. It's a joke. You have no organization. You have no infrastructure. … The only thing anybody is going to remember is that there were a bunch of Black folks who made fools of themselves."

The Chisholm campaign wasn't a juggernaut. Competing in a field of multiple candidates in 12 primaries, Shirley garnered more than 430,000 votes nationally, less than 3% of those cast, and 28 delegates for the Democratic National Convention in Miami. There, Democratic South Dakota Sen. George McGovern secured the nomination. The 1968 party standard bearer Minnesota Sen. Hubert Humphrey released his Black delegates to Chisholm, a symbolic move that gave her the majority of her total 152 delegate votes.

The film, to its credit, isn't interested in a hagiographic portrait of its subject. Shirley struggles with her marriage and copes with her sister Muriel St. Hill's (Reina King) resentment. Conrad, from whom she divorced in 1977, says about their relationship: "I try as hard as I can to be the man you want: attentive, and mindful. … I know all the good that you can do. So I'll be your shadow because I know, for whatever reason, a shadow of a man is what you want."

For her part, Muriel says this of her older sister: "All people do, Shirley, they talk about you. They say you're crazy." But Muriel reveals she criticizes Shirley because their father provided financially for her after his death. Nonetheless, her sister's disapproval engenders self-doubt in Shirley. "Am I crazy?" she asks future husband Hardwick. Acknowledging implicitly how difficult she is to live with, she says Conrad is "200 pounds of patience."

In a wonderfully complex performance, these frailties coexist seamlessly with the regal, public bearing King's Shirley projects with her voice. To achieve that effect, King de-emphasizes the lisp for which Chisholm was known and stresses her character's lilting Barbadian accent. Commanding a stage, King also masters Shirley's intimate moments. In the film's most memorable scene, Chisholm controversially visits Democratic rival and inveterate segregationist George Wallace (W. Earl Brown) in the hospital. In May 1972, at a campaign event in Laurel, Maryland, Arthur Bremer shot Wallace, leaving him paralyzed the rest of his life.

Chisholm had good cause not to visit Wallace, but having escaped an attack on her life, and as a Christian, Shirley felt compelled to go. Wallace is deeply moved when she says, "You have an opportunity to keep on how you've been or be more than what you were. And you better figure it out quick. Because the next time the Good Lord may not be satisfied with taking just half of you."

"Shirley" needed more scenes like this. Regina King's magnificent performance anchors the film, but its dramatic lulls cancel out the high points and the film struggles to maintain viewers' interest consistently. Ridley's direction falters with the content, failing to generate enough narrative momentum to fully explain why Chisholm's campaign mattered and why people supported her, and culminating in an awkward, abrupt ending. 

"Shirley" could have been better, but it is doubtful that Regina King could be.