PROVIDENCE — An hour and 30 minutes after sitting down to see Buddy at the Providence Place Cinemas, the Charbonneaus, of Barrington, rendered their verdict on the movie about the man who used to be mayor.

“It was good,” said Margaret Charbonneau. “Seemed to be pretty objective.”

“Yeah, very good,” said Bob Charbonneau.

Margaret Charbonneau said she enjoyed a moment in the movie in which the then-future Mayor Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci Jr. was a wrestler and took on an opponent who would seem to have an advantage — but Cianci overcame the odds.

They said the ending of the documentary, which examined the ups and downs of the flamboyant Cianci’s career, conveyed sadness.

The Charbonneaus were among those greeted at the cinema yesterday afternoon by posters of dueling Transformer movie robots who are sworn to destroy each other. They are safely separated, however, by another poster, showing Cianci — his arms raised and the Providence skyline behind him.

Before seeing the movie at its 3 p.m. showing, the couple recalled the mayor as colorful and said he did a lot for Providence, but that he also had his problems — a repeated refrain from moviegoers yesterday.

“You can never say he wasn’t interesting,” Margaret Charbonneau said of Cianci, now serving time in federal prison on corruption charges.

Bob Charbonneau said he read The Prince of Providence, by Journal investigative reporter Mike Stanton, which was one thing that sparked his interest in seeing this movie.

The Prince of Providence is also in the process of becoming a movie, with director Michael Corrente hoping to begin filming in Rhode Island by late summer or fall.

Guy and Vilma Maiorano, former Rhode Islanders, drove from Stonington, Conn., where they have lived for many years, to see the film.

“Just like watching a biography on TV,” said Vilma Maiorano. She said it was interesting to see the city’s physical changes depicted in the film.

Guy Maiorano, who grew up on Federal Hill, said the picture was “good for Buddy.”

Alexis Smith, a cinema cashier, said the majority of tickets sold for the first show at 12:45 p.m. and for the 3 p.m. shows were for Buddy.

The fascination with the former mayor drew moviegoers from outside Rhode Island.

Ben Keefe, who hails from Rochester, N.Y., and came to see Buddy with Olga Granados of Providence, said that in his part of New York, people were no stranger to colorful mayors. But what he heard about Providence’s former mayor stood out.

Of Cianci, the man, Keefe said: “There’s that whole kind of cinematic quality.”

“I’m just intrigued by the whole thing,” said Keefe.

But the Buddy charisma wasn’t enough to keep a couple of teens from going to see Blades of Glory, the comedy about a male figure-skating duo. Some other young people walking into the theater yesterday seemed not to have heard that Buddy was now a movie and wondered aloud if the film was really about the former mayor.

Nick Stoker, of New York City, and a friend were not dissuaded from seeing 300, an action movie. Stoker said that if he goes to a documentary, it needs to be about something like surfing — something with a lot of visual action that the big screen brings out.

Thinking of going?

The movie is scheduled to play this weekend at the Providence Place Cinemas and the Showcase Warwick.