I think you mean 'weak link', not 'wink link'. Anyway, I thought she gave the best performance in the film.

What the hell does wink link mean?

The scene when Nolte grabs the gun from the dead guy then goes out his front door and just starts randomly shooting. What a ridiculous mess! Lange looks like an idiot trying to pull him back inside. Not her best work by far.

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"I'm not on fcking trial here!!!!!!!!!!!"

"wink link" ???

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Lange was excellent in this.

I didn't feel she was bad. But, then again, I usually think anyone is good unless they are so terrible that I can't help but notice, such as the director's daughter in The Godfather Part III. I still liked that movie anyway, though, and her badness gave me some good laughs.

Frankly, with exceptions of her roles in Tootsie and Grey Gardens, Ive never been fond of Lange as an actress.

I thought she was decent. She was treated, basically as a s 'Scream queen' anyways. At least her character had a bunch of opposing emotions and plots and stuff to deal with, rather than just be a victim.

I didn't think she was terrible in the film or anything, but she definitely overacted in some scenes.

Blame Scorsese.

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I love Jessica Lange in this film, so ridiculously over-the-top!
That screech of 'OH NO!!!' when Sam get's dragged into the boat. Amazing.

pretty high score for an "awful excuse for a thriller" You seem to be in a minority.

The whole movie was filled with heightened performances..

I would rather say 'exaggerated' and 'overdone', rather than 'heightened' performances in this awful excuse for a thriller. As far as I am concerned, Juliette Lewis is the only one who gave a decent performance in this mess of a movie. This is quite a revelation, considering she was the least experienced of the actors.

I thought her performance was not cringeworthy at all. The whole movie was filled with heightened performances - not to mention De Niro, Nolte, and Lewis. Her performance was powerful.

Personally I think she plays the character bang on. Her character is suppose to be overcome with emotional instability, and the friction her and Nolte create is amazing in this. It feels like they truly are married. I don't see how you can miss this with an open minded perception. I think you've misjudged this totally. It's the character that you likely hate, not the performance. It's like Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire. It's hard to like Vivien Leigh because the character she plays is such an unbelievable douche bag. Vivien did win the Oscar for it, but she probably would never have if she was not already a super star actress.
There is also tons of subtlety in her performance. Such as the scene when her and Nolte are in bed sharing a cig and they are waiting, expecting Cady to break in. It's the beginning of a great suspenseful lead up to a dead maid in the kitchen, etc. "every one of her lines are delivered in an overexaggerated format" B.S! Don't you think Scorsese and his people picked the person who delivered the character the way he wanted? Of course they did. Her part fits the movie, but yes, she is hard to like. Her acting however in my view, is definitely something to like. She's great!
My body's a cage, it's been used and abusedand ILIKE IT!!

It's funny cause I know exactly what the OP is saying about Jessica Lange in general. However, I quite liked her in this role and I don't think there was anything cringeworthy to me

I didn't think the "I didn't let him out" line was over the top at all. I think she played it very realistically. Women do behave like that, believe it or not. I thought she played it just fine.

I thought of the main characters in this film, well, the only one that was decent was De Niro of course, he's always superb, but this film just doesn't really cut it for me.

I've NEVER thought Jessica Lange was all that. Well, other than her first film, King Kong in 1976, where she was basically eye candy. Way way WAY overrated as a "serious" actress. So her stinking up Cape Fear is pretty much par for the course for her.
Get the facts first - you can distort them later!

So, in a thriller that features a psychopath who commits heinous crimes, it's the actress playing the distraught wife that sends shivers up and down your spine, is it?