Would You Want Your Name On This?

I caught up with Anonymous, the historical thriller by Roland Emmerich a couple years ago.  I didn't expect much--it flopped and the critics didn't like it--and I wasn't disappointed.  But it raises a question about historical accuracy that I've always found interesting.

The movie is about Edward de Vere, Elizabethan courtier and secret author of Shakespeare's plays.  He can't openly claim credit for the works that pour out of him, so an actor who can't even write steals the money and fame for classics like Henry V and Richard III, which are actually designed to further de Vere's political intrigues.

There's the rub.  The idea that Shakespeare was a devious buffoon and Ben Jonson a dupe is preposterous, even insulting.  But should I care?  "Historical" works regularly get things wrong--Richard III is probably further removed from history than Anonymous (to go from the sublime to the ridiculous).  I can enjoy a movie like JFK while recognizing everything in it is nonsense, so why not something set centuries ago?

The sets and costumes conjure up the age quite well (though the attitudes are sometimes modern enough that the groundlings become a mosh pit). The action and intrigue isn't bad.  Maybe I'm too hard on the film.  Am I letting my knowledge of history get in the way?