In 2257 AD, the colonists of the planet New World, all men, have been afflicted with a condition called the Noise, which causes everyone to see and hear each other's thoughts. Judging by the level of intelligence the characters exhibit, this ought be a deafeningly silent planet.
People who colonize a new world and literally call it "New World" can't have much in their minds (perhaps they should have called it Planet Faulkner, since everyone here seems to think in an uncontrollable stream of consciousness and/or has the mental faculties of a Benjy Compson). When sort of halo envelops their heads when they 'think,' it’s like the light is on but no one’s home.
The only one here who manages to avoid appearing like a complete idiot is Mads Mikkelsen, and only because the Danish actor is too smart to play this dumb; his character, David Prentiss, is not particularly brilliant, but one can at least give him the benefit of the doubt — after all, he’s more insane than he is inane.
Prentiss is the only one who has learned to control his "Noise", which shouldn't be too difficult; ever heard the expression 'think before you speak?' I don’t think it’d really be all that hard to 'think before you think;' these characters, however, are mentally incontinent.
Either director Doug Liman and screenwriters Patrick Ness and Christopher Ford are as dumb as the movie they've made, or they assume the audience is. For some reason, women can see and hear men's thoughts, but men can't see and hear women’s — making the “Noise” nothing more than a clumsy allegory for female intuition. This actually has to do directly with the lack of women in Prentisstown (of which, as the name suggests, Prentiss is the mayor), in a twist preposterous enough to make M. Night Shyamalan himself scratch his head in disbelief.